Gateway Church Austin

Jesus willingly suffered on behalf of humanity. He took upon himself all of the evil and sin ever committed or ever will be committed. The result was his death on a cross, yet on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead! The greatest miracle in history changed everything! Jesus demonstrated He truly was God among us! Now through Him, we can truly live – now and into eternity!

Knowing his time with his followers was limited, Jesus brought them together for one last meal. Jesus demonstrated his love and power by washing their feet, sharing with them about the coming Holy Spirit, and sharing with them about the importance of sacrifice. The night ended with his betrayal from one of his own followers, and his response surprised those closest to him and remains a great example for all of us.

Passion. Webster's dictionary defines “passion” as “the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death.” Passion isn't something we like or something we really enjoy. Genuine passion is what we are willing to die for. God demonstrated His passion for you and me by sending His Son to give His life for us. The week in the life of Jesus called “Passion Week” began with a cheering crowd and a stand for justice.

As we are seeking faith, new to faith, growing in faith, there are words that just seem foreign to us. There are some “big Ideas” and keywords in scripture that, in the original Greek language, hold deep insights into God and His heart. Discover how understanding the biblical ideas of “selflessness,” “justice,” and “change” can affect us deeply today.

We protest for justice. We work and pray for social justice. We watch movies about the Justice League. What actually is justice? According to the Scriptures, justice originates from God and His righteousness. We can discover how to bring God's kind of righteousness and justice to earth without being “self-righteous,” “judging others,” or hypocritical. Instead, we can bring healing to our world.

Every week we sing at our weekend inspire services. The music is great, and the lyrics are inspiring. Even still, what does it mean to worship God through music? God is worthy of our devotion, and we serve, grow, give, and live out of gratitude for what He has done for us. Singing is the easiest form of worship, and even still doing so can transform us and activate the spiritual realm.

Every week we sing at our weekend inspire services. The music is great, and the lyrics are inspiring. Even still, what does it mean to worship God through music? God is worthy of our devotion, and we serve, grow, give, and live out of gratitude for what He has done for us. Singing is the easiest form of worship, and even still doing so can transform us and activate the spiritual realm.

Most of us pray. Even those of us unsure about God still pray, especially when we are in the midst of a crisis. Prayer can be a powerful experience in our lives, but we need to reframe how we view God. Prayer is not about telling God what to do. Prayer enables us to share our hearts with God and realign ourselves to who He is and what He has for us.

Many of us have a warped view of God. We see God as angry and hard to please or as an old wise man with a gray beard who is distant from us. God has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Spirit, so what does that mean? Discover the beauty of who God is and how that illuminates our path.

From the people who brought you the Super Bull, this year we have something even better - the Gateway Throwdown! Every Austin area campus features two dynamic speakers battling to win the hearts and minds of their campus!

God created you on purpose and for a purpose. God gives us so many remarkable spiritual blessings so that we can share them with others. We receive His joy, hope, peace and so much more so that we can share them with others. The God of love invites us to bring His light and life everywhere we go. We can make the world a better place and help others discover that they “take all they need” as well.

Anxiety, worry, and panic attacks remain constant threats in so many of our lives. When we find ourselves needing a way out, God offers “a peace that surpasses understanding.” When we discover peace with God, we can live life without condemnation. As a result, the worries and anxieties of what others think about us and even what we think about ourselves can fade away knowing how God feels about us. Discover how God's gift of peace can overwhelm and replace your anxiety.

We all want to be “happy,” but how can you be happy when so much keeps going wrong? Jesus gives us a promise, a right, as children of God to experience joy at all times. God's joy transcends what others do or don't do and transcends circumstances. Discover how to live with pure joy throughout this new year.

God offers us access to a new way of living as a part of a new family. God's family is loving, kind, grace-giving, and multi-ethnic. We can have healthy friendships and a healthier version of the family we've always dreamed about as we learn to do our part to live out who God created us to be. As we celebrate the holiday weekend which honors the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we can discover that his dream for our world was a glimpse of what God promises we can have with His help.

It's easy to find ourselves too busy, too overwhelmed, and too behind with all we have to do. Inevitably, it always feels like we never have enough of what we need to pull things off. But what if we are seeing things all wrong? In this new year, we can start with a fresh perspective and discover all we actually have access to Right Now as gifts from God. When it comes to more hope, healthier relationships, pure joy, and overwhelming peace, God says: “Take as much as you need.”

John Lee engages us to explore how God is a God who makes things new. God wants to give us a new perspective of who he is. He works through people like you and me to re-present himself to the world around us. What kind of "agent" of God's goodness will you be in the new year?

Jesus + ________ = Everything. What do you put in the blank? Listen as Ricky Echeona helps us explore how to live a life that seeks to follow Jesus and doesn't settle by filling in the blank.

This life never quite feels like home. We can feel it. There is something missing. Jesus came to bring more and more of the Home of God into a world that is going away from God. Jesus' birth announced peace to all people on whom God's favor rests. As we allow God's light to shine through us, we let people see a taste of Home.

Hurt people hurt people – especially those closest to them. When things are not messy, it usually means we're not that close. When we get close, we see differences, rub each other wrong, and step on toes. When we push through these difficulties to true acceptance and love of the other that is when we feel really known and loved. As we learn restorative principles in our church family, we can bring healing to our biological families.

Family can be the source of great joy and great pain. When so many of us come from dysfunctional families, we can learn new family dynamics where forgiveness rather than bitterness and kindness rather than cruelty become the way we relate with each other.

All of us feel lonely at times, sometimes even in a crowd or at home with our families. Other times we feel lonely because we're new to an area, or just don't feel like anyone really knows us. God sees the lonely, and He cares. God cares about our relationships and helps us experience a community that can be healthy and healing.

Over the last couple of months we asked you to submit your questions about faith, God, Jesus, angels, evil, and the Bible. Today you'll hear a discussion rather than a sermon, and how we explored answers to some of your questions.

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word thankful as "pleased and relieved." Both of those are great feelings... The Oxford Dictionary defines the word grateful as "showing an appreciation of kindness." This is where the difference lies, being thankful is a feeling, and being grateful is an action.

Poverty, injustice, corruption, violence, racism, and sexism are just some of the ways that evil manifests in our world. At the root of all evil perpetrated by humans is people's personal decision to follow a lie rather than the truth. The solution to the problem of evil isn't in changing all those people out there, it starts within us. The line between good and evil runs through every human heart. With God's help, we can live in the light of truth and fight against the evil within and the evil in our world.

What is an angel? Are they real? Are they chubby babies with harps sitting on clouds? So much of what we believe about the spiritual realm and the afterlife comes from Renaissance paintings and myths that swirl around in our culture. Instead, we will go back to the ancient text where stories of angels in the Bible are very different than what we might expect. And knowing the truth about the unseen world makes a difference in our lives.

Our world is intrigued and sometimes even embraces evil. Horror movies make a ton of money at the box office. Shows about the occult, the paranormal, and true crime are all big business. Why are we so drawn towards evil? And where does evil originate? Discover how evil can be found in the world's systems, in the human heart, and because of unseen spiritual forces.

God speaks to us in many ways, but often the problem is we are not listening. One of the ways He speaks to us is through the Scriptures. The Bible is not a rule book or an encyclopedia, but instead “the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus” (BibleProject.com). When we connect with God personally, the Scriptures become one of our weapons to fight evil in our world and in our lives. The Bible can become a portal into God's presence.

God created us for a relationship. His love letter, his truth, is available to us through the Scriptures. There will be questions and there will be moments of pause, but the Bible can be the foundation on which we build our lives. The Bible is relevant by helping us understand who God is and how to live a new life under His leadership and with His guidance. Transformation comes when we engage God through the Scriptures.

When we need clarity, wisdom, peace, comfort, or rest, we have ancient wisdom which can guide us towards what we want. Unfortunately, many of us have given up on the Bible or consider it irrelevant to life. It is true, the Bible has been misunderstood, misinterpreted, and even used for the agenda of people who did not have the heart of God or were a product of their times. When we come to the Scriptures with an open heart and open mind, we will discover God waiting to speak to us and ready to meet even our deepest needs.

Growth always requires change. When we take advantage of the discomforts and tests we face, we can make significant progress in our lives. This requires intentionality. As we take personal responsibility for our spiritual growth, we will be more engaged with God personally and more connected with others relationally.

In spite of such a challenging season, we also experienced some really positive moments. Neighbors helped each other when we lost power and water. We shared with others when there were food shortages. We helped others, and we got help. We caught a glimpse of the kind of community God has in mind for all of us. We can make BLESSing our neighbors an ongoing part of our lives.

During these last 18 months, we experienced an epidemic of loneliness and isolation which negatively affected our mental health. God created us to Belong. Community and connection are essential to thrive. God's family allows us to experience His love and kindness through other people.

For many of us, during these last 18 months, our childhood wounds surfaced and addictions or struggles returned. In this new season, we can put good habits and patterns in our lives to support healing and growth. We can relaunch our lives by looking honestly at things revealed that God wants to heal.

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.

Remember that sense of fun, adventure, and creativity? A time in life when the possibilities were endless? God wants kids to grow up fiercely alive. We can rediscover that sense of excitement in life by discovering our uniqueness, sense of worth, and value.

We are all created good in the image of God, but we all face a world filled with violence, animosity, and brokenness. Inevitably like losing baby teeth, at some point we lose our sense of innocence and wonder due to the evil around us and the darkness within us. We will explore how innocence can be restored so that we can live out the new life God intends for us.

We all have a family of origin that affected how we grew up. Understanding what God intends for kids to grow up to discover helps us evaluate the experiences that shaped us. Even as we grow into adulthood, we can enjoy the joys of being children in God's Kingdom.

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.

You matter. Your story matters. Others' stories matter. God works in the hearts and lives of people. As you hear from a well-known tech executive and some of our young leaders during the Voices series, you will be inspired towards a deeper faith, a greater love, and more hope.

You matter. Your story matters. Others' stories matter. God works in the hearts and lives of people. As you hear from a well-known tech executive and some of our young leaders during the Voices series, you will be inspired towards a deeper faith, a greater love, and more hope.

You matter. Your story matters. Others' stories matter. God works in the hearts and lives of people. As you hear from a well-known tech executive and some of our young leaders during the Voices series, you will be inspired towards a deeper faith, a greater love, and more hope.

Too often, the Church has been a stumbling block for people coming to know the real Jesus. We don't have to allow hypocrites or cultural Christians to keep us from the life God has for us. Followers of Jesus can develop a genuine faith that transforms us and enables us to create the community He desires.

On Father's Day, some of us celebrate, and for some of us, talking about family triggers us. Dysfunction and toxicity are far too common, but they don't have to be inevitable as we learn to navigate conflict, forgive, and chart a new path.

We all have bosses, professors, leaders in our life who let us down, how do we respond when those we trust to lead us well, do the very opposite? Even if they may not have our best interest at heart, God can use difficult people in our lives to make us better.

In the wake of a divisive presidential election, a pandemic, cultural unrest, and cancel culture, it's no wonder we are all suffering from TRUST fatigue. Trust does not come easily for most of us, but learning to trust again can give us the strength and confidence we need (and others need from us).

God wants us to have more rather than take more from us. There are very “rich” people who are worth far less than those with a high net worth without contentment, freedom, generosity but stuck needing more. What if we began to see ourselves as God’s Investment Managers that He could trust with more and more because we will be faithful? How do you get there where God can trust you with more and more? God actually asks us to test Him in the area of finances. Money reveals how we view ourselves and God.

Contrary to popular belief, God doesn’t want us to have less, but more. God is a God of abundance – not a God of need, but we must have hearts that can handle more rather than being possessed by the lust for more. God gives principles of money management that are not just wise, but also a test of whether we can handle more.

Everyone needs/wants more money, but “more” is a very subjective idea. What if the ways the world teaches us to “gain more” are not actually going to help us “experience more?” God’s ways and all God says about our money point out a pivotal concept – “more” is a matter of the heart. God wants our heart, and God gives us money and stuff as a way to help teach our hearts how to love Him and love people. Until we deal with our thoughts and attitudes towards money, we will not be free to become generous, debt-free, life-giving people who are content and happy with the abundance we have.

Moms have a unique role in our world that is not often given the importance or credit it deserves. Every human being is designed to need and depend on mom – more than any other person. God did this on purpose as we are dependent creatures who need truth and love to become the person God created us to be.

Gateway is a diverse community racially/ethnically as well with over 60 nationalities represented – just in our Austin campuses alone! When we include those connected across the United States or globally, it is even more remarkable. God’s heart has always been for all people of various tribes, tongues, races, and ethnicities, and the Church has always had to learn to see each other across cultures. In a divided world, we are uniquely called and equipped to be the unified community the world needs us to be.

We are all created and gifted by God. These gifts have to be discovered, developed, and put into action to make the world a better place. From those who are still struggling to determine what we want to do “when we grow up” to those who have started profitable businesses or led in influential industries, each of us has something important to contribute towards God’s purposes. We can all be successful in the eyes of God as we are faithful with what we’ve been given. When we take our passions, expertise, and experiences, add in our training and knowledge, and mix it together with our church community, we have the ingredients we need to make our city an even more beautiful place to be.