Gateway Church Austin

When Jesus showed up in people’s lives in the Gospels, something shifted. The same is true today. When we radically encounter who God really is, in the greatest way possible, nothing is ever the same. God will stop at nothing to show you that you are chosen like he did with a religious leader at the end of his religious rope. God cares more about heart transformation than behavior modification.

When Jesus showed up in people’s lives in the Gospels, something shifted. The same is true today. When we radically encounter who God really is, in the greatest way possible, nothing is ever the same. God will stop at nothing to show you that you are chosen like two men who abandoned Jesus. Despite your sin and your mess, you are chosen by God.

You can trust God with your now and with your unknown.

How would you define prayer? What role does prayer play in your life?

Have you experienced a “rock bottom” moment in your life where you had no other option but to look up and ask for help? Or maybe not quite “rock bottom”, but a jolting moment that woke you up to the reality of a bad direction your life was going? What happened as a result of these experiences?

OLD VS. NEW 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. DIGGING DEEPER 1. Describe your history and current relationship with the Bible. Are you: Familiar and comfortable with it? Been reading it for years? Regularly engage with it as a way of spending time with God? Like the New Testament but avoid the Old or the other way around? Try to read it, but feel lost or overwhelmed? Brand new to it or never cracked it open? Etc. 2. Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The Bible makes many claims about its purpose and value. The Apostle Paul in his second letter to his protege sums up some of these claims in this passage. What do we learn about Scripture here? How have you experienced the Bible as God’s inspired (breathed out) word in your own life? 3. Read Psalm 19:7-11. How does the Psalmist describe God’s Word (the Law)? Do you approach the Bible with the same premises?

A lesson in humility.  We either learn it or earn it the hard way.

Bad authorities may ask you to do things you know you cannot do. 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. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What is something you have purchased that may have seemed frivolous at the time, but was worth every penny? 2. Take the time to read through all of Daniel 3 and answer the following questions: What stands out to you about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s actions in this story? What stands out to you about the king’s actions in this story? How does God show up? What happens as a result? 3. Where is your comfort in difficult times? Is your comfort in God delivering you from difficulty or in the reality that God is WITH you? 4. Read Luke 14:25-33 and answer the following questions: ◦ Make some observations about this passage (What does the text say): ▪ Who is talking? ▪ What is the circumstance?

Bad people make bad choices that affect us.

God cares about the stand you take privately than the stand you take publicly.

No matter how bleak the situation is around you or within you. Our hope is not anchored in what we see but in a God who is sovereign.

Christmas is best celebrated when we are surrounded by the ones we love. Through Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, we are invited into the family of God. That means we are chosen. That means we belong!

No matter where Christmas is celebrated in the world, lights are an essential element. Whether it’s hanging them on your house the day after Thanksgiving, lighting candles on December 24, or decorating streets with luminaries, Christmas is the embodiment of God bringing light into the darkness.

Because of Jesus, we can bring Heaven to Earth. And one day that process will be complete. There will be no more hurt, no more sickness, no more struggle, and no more death. In the ocean of temporal life, we have an eternal anchor in hope, and that is Jesus.

Jesus showed us a new way to be human. We are not slaves to sin, addictions, feelings, or the past. In Christ, we are new creations. Because He passed the ultimate test, you and I can have true life!

Evil, the world, and our own brokenness constantly claw at our identity. All pulling us to create a foundation of self-image on everything but God. These schemes and patterns are nothing new. When in doubt we can trust who God says we are.

We are constantly looking for validation in this world either out loud or within our souls crying out, “Someone, tell me who I am!” Even the most faithful Christ follower is sometimes asking this same question. The only place we get the answers is from the Creator Himself.

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. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What intrigued you about this message? 2. Can you relate to what you heard in the message? Has this same idea/challenge come up in your life before, or is it new? 3. How does what you heard affect your life right now (maybe it speaks to something you are going through, struggling with, looking into, etc.)? 4. What challenged you? 5. What is your next step to apply what you heard? 6. Is there someone you feel prompted to share with, about what you’ve learned from the message?

Sometimes our career success can overshadow what we are really going through. Lindsay Ronga, one of our Gateway North volunteers shares her story that will show us how we can trust God with our hardships and know that God is writing an even better story.

We all will experience stressful and sometimes significantly trying times in our jobs. What if fear doesn’t have to have the loudest voice? Phil Wright, one of our spiritual overseers at Gateway, shares his story that will show us how we can trust God’s way, even when conventional wisdom says otherwise.