Gateway Church Austin

More Than Words - Initiate by Gateway Church Austin

There’s something about teams and working together to win that’s in the human spirit. Maybe what draws us to teams is that we were all meant to be players on God’s winning team. How can we work together to defeat our evil opponent and bring goodness and light to the world around us?

Through the chaotic rhythms of life in which most of us find ourselves, it’s easy to move to the same beat we’ve always known. Instead of growing and maturing, we can get distracted by the things we’re trying to accomplish or acquire and miss out on God’s invitation to experience what matters most: loving and being loved by God and loving and being loved by each other. When we dive into God-centered community, we receive the healing and accountability we need to change our lives and our world through God’s loving grace.

Have you ever known a person who was willing to lay down his/her interests to serve and care for you? Jesus said we are to love God and love people, but these straightforward commands can be pretty tough to follow in our everyday lives. Though the commands involve sacrifice, the payoff is priceless. What could we accomplish together if we were all as servant-hearted as God intended?

Have you ever been a part of a group or had a friend that made you feel truly accepted? God calls us to be precisely this to everyone we encounter. But since we live in a broken world, and we ourselves are so broken, how can we hope to be fully accepted for who we are, let alone be able to easily accept those around us? What if we could view people through the same lens God views us? Are you willing to leave judgments and fear of being judged behind to see and be seen by people through the same lens God sees us?

One out of 25 people in America has had a near-death experience. Their heart stopped beating, their brain waves ceased, yet they claim they were more alive than ever. With improved medical resuscitation, more and more verifiable evidence indicates that life doesn’t end with our last breath— it’s just beginning. So, what really happens after death?

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.

The one thing we all have in common is that we all need hope. No matter your level of wealth, your nationality, or even your religion, our need for hope connects us all. Jesus promises the hope we all desire, and we don’t have to do anything to prove we’re worthy of His love. We can come as we are. Will you accept the love and hope that’s offered so freely?

Have you ever disrupted your own life to help another? To love like Jesus is to do precisely that. Mother Teresa was one of the greatest examples of this—of expressing big love through small deeds. What does it look like to step into small deeds in your life and the world around you?

Jesus’ birth and the sacrifice He made to make us right with God give us the hope we all need. But it’s important for us to share the hope we have with others, even when it means great sacrifice, as we see in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Are you willing to be radically unselfish in order to help others see the hope we can all have? Will you be an agent of change for the world around you?

The holiday season often includes us celebrating the birth of Jesus. But when we celebrate Jesus, we don’t just celebrate a great teacher or a person who did good deeds—we celebrate the One who rescued humanity and brought hope to all the nations. And because of who Jesus was, our world has seen great leaders who were influenced by His story, like Gandhi. How can we see Jesus’ influence through Gandhi’s legacy, and how can we make sure that others see Jesus’ influence through our lives, too?

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.