Gateway Church Austin

Whether or not you believe in prayer and whether or not you feel like you know how to pray, during this series you will discover the power of and the path to connecting with God which can bring comfort, hope, and healing. Prayer is meant to be persistent, because persistent prayer is powerful!

Whether or not you believe in prayer and whether or not you feel like you know how to pray, during this series you will discover the power of and the path to connecting with God which can bring comfort, hope, and healing. Prayer is simply communicating with a loving God who desires to speak to you and loves to hear from you.

Whether or not you believe in prayer and whether or not you feel like you know how to pray, during this series, you will discover the power of and the path to connecting with God which can bring comfort, hope, and healing.

Pastor John Burke brings us his last Easter message as Senior Pastor of Gateway. There are many characters in the story about the death and resurrection of Jesus. They are all real people living in a real place, in a specified time for a specified purpose, with real human emotions and motivations. Friday was suppose to be the end of the story. At least that's what they all thought. But they didn't know that Sunday was coming. This sermon will challenge you to leave your sin at the cross and celebrate the good news that Jesus rose from the dead.

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 a woman who demonstrated that extravagant love invites extravagance.

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 woman who was an outcast.

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.