Gateway Church Austin

Do you think of your life as an adventure? God created us to do life in relationship with Him, and that’s certainly a thrilling journey. But what does it really look like to do life with God and trust Him with our decisions, big and small? What will we experience when we step out on faith and have God meet us there? Work through the following questions and Scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.

It’s been said that we make our decisions, but then our decisions make us. Often, the difference between a life that seems tragic and one that seems well-lived all comes down to the decisions made therein. But making all the decisions we’re forced to make can be exhausting. How do we know if we’re making the right decisions? And how can we set aside our pride and seek help with making the wise choices in our lives that could be life-changing?

In the hustle and bustle of the daily grind, we are all faced with decision after decision, to the point that we often hit decision fatigue. This can cause us to make rash or bad decisions or to even decide not to make decisions any more at all. God offers us a respite from decision fatigue, and he’s promised to walk with us and guide us in making the right decisions in our life, no matter how trivial or important the decision is. What practical steps will you take to move toward putting your trust in God for your decision-making?

What’s going on? Why am I doing this? What’s my part to play? Ever asked yourself these types of questions? Sometimes it’s necessary to step back, ask questions, and discuss together as family and friends to better chart a course forward. On Sunday, as a church, we’ll explore where we are now as the Gateway family and where we’re going in the future. What’s going on in our city? How can we bring life and freedom to those around us? We’ll walk away with some great next steps for each of us personally and together as a church.

Abuse in our society is widespread but often remains a hidden wound for so many. We want to be healed, to live in God’s compassion and grace, but this menace of secret pain continues to flow under the current of everything we do. Even if you have not experienced this type of wound, you likely know or live with someone who has. We can’t escape the effects. We find ourselves or those we love chained, deeply hurt, and separated from the freedom God wants to provide. How can we discover the wholeness that God has for us? How can we share it with those around us who desperately need to hear? During this series, God Heals You, we will seek to learn from experts and hear stories about those who have found this healing from God.

Abuse in our society is widespread but often remains a hidden wound for so many. We want to be healed, to live in God’s compassion and grace, but this menace of secret pain continues to flow under the current of everything we do. Even if you have not experienced this type of wound, you likely know or live with someone who has. We can’t escape the effects. We find ourselves or those we love chained, deeply hurt, and separated from the freedom God wants to provide. How can we discover the wholeness that God has for us? How can we share it with those around us who desperately need to hear? During this series, God Heals You, we will seek to learn from experts and hear stories about those who have found this healing from God.

Abuse in our society is widespread but often remains a hidden wound for so many. We want to be healed, to live in God’s compassion and grace, but this menace of secret pain continues to flow under the current of everything we do. Even if you have not experienced this type of wound, you likely know or live with someone who has. We can’t escape the effects. We find ourselves or those we love chained, deeply hurt, and separated from the freedom God wants to provide. How can we discover the wholeness that God has for us? How can we share it with those around us who desperately need to hear? During this series, God Heals You, we will seek to learn from experts and hear stories about those who have found this healing from God.

During this series, God Likes You, we’ve been working through a letter in the New Testament written to a church in an ancient city called Ephesus. Despite the passing of time, this church is much like Gateway. The people came from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. They had been involved in all sorts of struggles, addictions, and challenges, but they were learning that when your identity is rooted in Jesus we overcome. Our identity is that we are created for a loving relationship with the God. Yes, God loves you, but even more, He genuinely likes who you are, who He created you to be. He knows you, accepts you, wants to do life with you. But, there’s another part to the story that explains why it’s not so easy—evil hates you.

Throughout history followers of Jesus have experienced the importance of having the support of other believers to stand up against tyranny or persecution. We can see many instances where the church would have crumbled had the body of Jesus followers not stood together against a government or ruler that wanted to twist the church for their own purposes. The importance of the body is made evident during these moments as one person, or small group, discovers others standing with them in their most dire moments. From these seemingly hopeless moments, candles are lit, and the light grows person by person to pierce and envelop the darkness that seeks to surround them. What does this mean for you? What can you do to light a candle to pierce the darkness?

Why do we desire love so much? And, why do we often misinterpret love and accept something less that leads to all kinds of hurt and disappointment? We find ourselves being manipulated into aiming our desire at the wrong target, and as a result, end up being robbed of the very thing we desire. What is God’s plan for love? How can we receive it? How can we share it with others? How can we find ourselves deeply rooted in love?

Ever wish someone would walk up to you, nudge you on the shoulder, and simply share what the point of your life is? Wouldn’t that change everything? Instead, we find ourselves giving life our best shot, slogging through, trying different things, and working to discover our purpose. We wander through life often unfilled and dissatisfied. How can we discover our purpose? What is our identity? What are we supposed to do in this life?

Do you feel worthy, worthless, loved, or maybe even discarded? We live in a world where we are measured by our worth, our worthiness. We can find ourselves running on the treadmill of life, constantly attempting to prove our worth and to feel wanted, needed, loved, and worthy. Often we scrutinize ourselves by what we have to offer to others or by what we believe they value in us. We even bring this into how we see God. But that’s not what God wants for us. Our worth is not measured by others or even by Him. It is freely given by Him; not earned nor attained. Are you ready to step off the treadmill of life and stand in the worth that God has freely given you?

When someone pokes at an unhealed wound in our heart, it’s easy to respond with anger, even rage. We fight. We push away. We accuse. Or, we may just withdraw to stay protected. We become trapped. God wants to heal our wounded hearts. He wants to return us to life, joy, and wholeness. What can we do to step into this freedom? Work through the following questions and Scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.

How often do you sit back and ask yourself why something harmful or painful is part of your normal? Life moves at such a frantic pace for many of us, so it’s often difficult to make the time to figure out why we blow up at our family for little things, break down when a friend makes an offhand comment, or shut down when work gets really stressful. When these emotional reactions are part of our day-to-day, we tend to think that’s just the way we are. But what if there’s another, healthier way to react?

Last week we learned about the symptoms of an emotional trigger, but what can we do about them? The way to undo triggers starts with humbly admitting that you have one and that you can’t solve it on your own. That humble admission to God provides Him with the permission to show us. God already knows—He knows you better than you know yourself—but He’s not going to force you into anything. Instead He will walk with us to explore the roots of a trigger. The root is based on a wound or a lie, even a partial lie. God can heal you and replace the wound or lie with wholeness and truth. How can you begin?

Have you ever noticed how our society is easily angered or triggered? Just consider road rage, reactions erupting around political issues, emotional battles in marriages, or fear evolving out of the latest news report. In contrast, we desire to be loving, kind, patient, joyful, and self-controlled people. Yet, we all experience things that trigger us. We find ourselves overcome with negative emotions. Anger erupts at a co-worker about an interruption Impatience screams at our children for spilling milk. We react like we’re being physically attacked when our spouse asks a simple question. Or, maybe, we sink into despair from just one negative comment. When a present circumstance should not produce such an intense emotional response, it’s a symptom that you’re being triggered. No one wants to be easily triggered. It hinders us from living in the fruit of God’s Spirit. The first step is to identify the symptoms of when and why we get triggered.

The Case For Miracles - Voices 2019 by Gateway Church Austin

Gateway welcomes Latasha Morrison, certified trainer in cultural intelligence and unconscious bias and recent winner of a one million dollar grant from Facebook for being a cultural bridge-builder. Work through the following questions and Scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.

Gateway welcomes Jia Jiang, TED Talk speaker, author, and trainer for top companies and universities on fear and rejection.

Distinguished professor and prolific author featured in secular and religious news outlets, J.P. Moreland shares about overcoming anxiety.