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“Hello, My Name is Slow to Anger”

At Gateway Austin, we continued our new series “Hello, My Name Is….”

Your view of God shapes everything—how you pray, how you lead, how you suffer, how you love. What we believe about God will determine the kind of world we imagine we’re living in.

But what if our view of God is all wrong?

When Moses asked to see God’s glory, God did not first display raw power. He proclaimed His name and revealed His character: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin – yet not leaving the guilty unpunished.
This six-week journey shows what we can learn about God from His interaction with kings, poets, prophets, and people just like you and me. When we know who God really is, we can know Him more and make Him known.

Digging Deeper:

Hello, My Name Is Patience

Message Video at Gateway South Austin:

Message Audio at Gateway South Austin:

Message Notes by Ricky Echeona:

We’re going to start in our anchoring passage for this series, this is the passage from which this whole thing flows. Why? Because God has a name and it’s a long one, and this is how He chose to reveal himself. Not because he needed to save face but simply because this is who He IS, who He has always been, and who He will be.

Exodus 34:6-7- “God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.'”

And here’s the part we are double-clicking in on and zooming in on this morning- slow to anger. We are tuning in to God’s patience. Patience. I want you to know I fought everyone on the teaching team to teach this week on patience. That’s right, I beat everyone I faced. There were no challengers, but here I am. The team knew this is one of my strengths (lol)- PASSIONATE and PATIENT. LOUD and CALM. In all honesty, the word patient is probably not in the top five…hundred words you would use to describe me.

But I’m grateful we aint talking about me. We’re talking about GOD. How many are grateful that God is patient…make some noise. Yea, He’s been there through every mess, every fire (even the ones you started), every “If you just get me out of this…!” Come on, how many are grateful for God’s patience? His forebearance? The fact that Scripture says he is long-suffering.

Exodus 34:6-7 is probably one of if not the most quoted passage across the Old Testament. Over and over we hear “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…” It’s one of those things in Scripture that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. We’re told he’s patient repeatedly.

Psalm 145:8-9 (NIV) – The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

John tells us in 1 John God is love. We will talk about that more next week. God is love. And in the best description of LOVE that is read at every wedding, what is the first line? Love is…PATIENT. It’s read at every wedding. Every wedding except mine.

I gave my aunt who reads out of her King James and I didn’t have her proofread or practice. And shawty gets up there with her glasses with the 6ft rope attached to them, Tia I love you if you’re watching this later, clears her throat and reads out of her King James… “Charity suffereth long and is kind, charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself…” At this point I’m like who is Charity and why she in her Bible? “Charity doth not behave itself unseemly.” Someone get this woman a New International Version size 72 font… “Charity never faitleth!”

13 years later and I’m still afraid to break the news to her. She’s almost 90 and still amazingly fit and spry and pentecostal, so you can see my trepidation haha. She’s the reason I have everyone triple check their notes at every wedding, no lie.

But say it with me LOVE is… PATIENT. God is… PATIENT.

Turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor! God is patient…But I aint.”
Turn to your other neighbor and tell em, “God said ‘Wait’… and I said ‘How long?'”
Turn to a 3rd neighbor and tell em, “God said ‘Trust my timing’, and I said ‘Can I get a calendar invite?'”

“Lord I know the blessing is on the way but I need to check the tracking number bout 3-4 times Jesus. Did you get the shipping address right- it’s Ricky with a Y, not an EY. Really, my government name is Ricardo. Oh you knew that already? That’s right YAHWEH, Alpha and Omega and all that.”

But friends…God is PATIENT. He’s slow to anger.

But there’s this dissonance in most of us, if we’re being honest, when we hear that God is patient, because we become instantly aware of our impatience. We are impatient with God. We are impatient with others. We’re impatient with ourselves.

It’s been said so many times and in so many ways that it’s almost nauseating and played out when a pastor or podcaster says it- but we were not designed for the break-neck pace that we live at in 2026 in the west, in the US.

We’re consumed with speed, convenience, and urgency and comparison. So when we hear God is patient, and he desires that virtue to exist in us and through us, it almost makes us eye-roll. Like, “I get it…patience, yea sure. What else do I need, hurry up, what else.”

Out of all these attributes I think this is the one that grates on us the most. God is merciful, gracious, abounding in love… we love all those. And on the surface yea we love “slow to anger”, but when you peel back that layer and see that that really means He’s patient… and when you peel back that layer and see that that means He doesn’t work in our timeline and with our framework. That’s what bothers us the most.

But the fact that He is patient. That he is slow to anger means we can live differently. We can unplug from the hyper-control, and hyper-urgency, and anxiety we seem to live with constantly. And I fundamentally believe our impatience with God, our impatience with others, and our impatience with ourselves- it’s just a control issue.

But in revealing himself this way to Moses, and Israel, and Us. He’s saying “slow down and get to know me. I’m far from this angry mythical Olympian figure in the sky who wants to strike you down. I’m actually really slow to anger, I’m actually really patient.”

So what does it actually look like to surrender to a God like this? I want to show you three things His patience does in your life. But first, I want to take you to the New Testament, because Peter- yes THAT Peter, the one who couldn’t wait 5 minutes without swinging a sword or reflexively lying that he didn’t know Jesus- Peter grew up to write this about the character of God:

2 Peter 3:8-9 – But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Peter is writing to people who are DONE waiting. Persecuted, exhausted, watching evil seem to win, wondering “Jesus said He was coming back, so… where IS He?” Sound familiar? And Peter doesn’t say “you’re right, God’s slow.” He says you’ve got the math wrong. What feels like delay to you is not delay to Him. It’s not that God is slow. It’s that God is patient. Those are two very different words with two very different postures behind them.

Slow implies He’s behind schedule. Patient implies He’s exactly on time, and He’s using the “delay” for something you can’t see yet.

And here’s the piece I don’t want you to miss- His patience isn’t passive, it’s purposeful. He’s not patient because He’s stalling. He’s patient because He’s after something- your repentance, your endurance, your hope. Let’s break this down together

[Production Note- I have the points numbered here, but I don’t want the numbers on the slides]

1. God’s Patience Gives Us Time to Turn.

Peter says God’s not wishing that any should perish, but that ALL should reach repentance. Translation- every day God doesn’t bring down the hammer isn’t Him letting you get away with something, it’s Him making room for you to come home.

Think about Cain. First murder in human history. And before it happens, God shows up and asks him a question that should stop every one of us in our tracks:

Genesis 4:6-7 – Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

God doesn’t open with judgment, He opens with a question about Cain’s ANGER. “Why are you angry?” Because God knows something Cain doesn’t know about himself yet- his anger isn’t really about Abel’s sacrifice being accepted and his wasn’t. His anger is the SMOKE. The fire underneath is rejection. Comparison. Feeling unseen by his own father, maybe, or unseen by God Himself. Feeling like he’ll never measure up.

Here’s something modern psychology has caught up to that Scripture’s been saying since Genesis 4- anger is what they call a SECONDARY emotion. It’s rarely the real thing. It’s the alarm that goes off to protect you from feeling something more vulnerable underneath- shame, hurt, grief, fear, feeling powerless, feeling unworthy. Anger feels strong. Anger feels like control. So we reach for it instead of the softer, scarier stuff underneath.

Can I get practical for a second?

Dads, when you snap at your kid over the spilled juice, it’s rarely about the juice.
Moms, when you’re short with your husband about the dishes again, it’s rarely about the dishes.
Coworkers, when that email makes your blood boil, it’s rarely about the email.

Something underneath got touched- you felt disrespected, unseen, unworthy, out of control- and anger showed up to protect you from feeling that.

God’s patience with Cain, in that moment, was Him saying “I see what’s under the anger, and I’m giving you a beat before this becomes something you can’t take back.” That’s what His patience does for you too. It’s not Him ignoring your sin. It’s Him giving you TIME- time to ask what’s really going on underneath the snap, the silence, the slammed door- before it becomes a regret you carry for years.

The Lord speaking to me on my retreat about why I feel the need to control.

And can we be honest? We WANT God’s patience toward us. We just don’t always want to extend it to ourselves, others, or to Him. St. Augustine, who pre-Jesus was a wild boy in these streets and in the sheets (lol), in his book Confessions, admits maybe the most honest prayer ever prayed by a Christian- “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” That’s every one of us at some point. God, be patient with me while I figure out my timeline for turning. Meanwhile we want Him to fix our spouse, our finances, our health, TODAY.

His patience gives you time to turn. What is He giving YOU time to turn from right now?

Where is everyone else telling you, you have an anger issue in this area but you keep shirking it like it’s no big deal? Maybe God is trying to heal something underneath the surface. There’s this iceberg no one can see. And YOU may not even be aware of it. But God in His mercy says, “Let’s deal with THAT! Then the anger won’t seem so impulsive and second-nature.”

2. God’s Patience Gives Us Grace to Go the Distance.

Repentance is the turn. But what about the WAITING that comes after you’ve already turned, and the answer still hasn’t come? What about the marriage you’re praying over that hasn’t changed? The diagnosis that hasn’t lifted? The prodigal who still hasn’t called?

This is where most of us don’t need FORGIVENESS as much as we need ENDURANCE. And endurance doesn’t come from gritting your teeth harder, it comes from God’s own patience becoming the grace you draw from.

There’s a prophet who knew this tension better than most- Jonah. Jonah didn’t need patience to obey God the first time (well, he ran, but that’s another sermon). Jonah’s real anger issue shows up AFTER obedience, after revival, after God does the miracle:

Jonah 4:1-4 – But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Jonah is FURIOUS that God is exactly who Exodus 34 said He’d be- compassionate, gracious, slow to anger. Jonah wanted judgment on Nineveh, not mercy. And God asks him the same question he asked Cain- “is it right for you to be angry?” Underneath Jonah’s anger wasn’t really about Nineveh at all. It was fear. Fear that mercy for his enemies made his own suffering meaningless. It was entitlement. He felt owed a certain outcome after doing what God asked. Sound familiar?

How many of us have done the right thing- forgiven, obeyed, stayed faithful- and then gotten ANGRY when the outcome didn’t look like we thought it should? That anger is usually grief wearing a mask. Grief over a story that didn’t go the way you scripted it.

You know all anger at it’s root is a response to a seeming injustice. Even a child throwing a tantrum in the store- “It’s not fair that you won’t get me a kinder joy, we got one last time.”

Your road rage? A response to an “injustice” to everyone else you look crazy, but in your mind behind the wheel of that Ford Explorer you are a great judge dispensing good justice.

James, Jesus’ own brother, later writes this to a scattered, suffering, impatient church:

James 1:19-20 – My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this- Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Notice- he’s not saying don’t ever feel anger. He’s saying be SLOW to it, the same way God is slow to it. Because your anger, unmanaged, doesn’t accomplish what you think it will. It doesn’t speed up the process. It just burns YOU and everyone around you while you wait.

Paul says something similar to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:26 – “In your anger do not sin”- Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Anger itself isn’t the sin. What you DO with it, and how long you let it sit unresolved, is where the door opens for something worse. Endurance doesn’t mean stuffing the anger down and pretending. It means bringing it to God the way Jonah did- honest, even furious- and letting Him show you what’s actually underneath it, instead of letting it fester into bitterness that outlasts the season you’re trying to survive.

But our hope is to do better than Jonah, because He just stews in it. And the ending doesn’t resolve well, there’s no pretty bow at the end of Jonah’s story. He just stays there in his self-righteous indignation.

When it doesn’t FEEL fair, trust God’s character and track record. He will make things right, and He might send you to help bring justice when you have the right mindset and heart.

Dads, moms, that coworker who tests your patience every single day- your capacity to endure them isn’t going to come from trying harder. It’s going to come from tapping into HIS patience toward you, and letting that recalibrate how much patience you have left to give away.

His patience gives you grace to go the distance.

3. God’s Patience Trains Us to Wait Strong

Here’s where I want to have some fun, because I don’t want you to leave here thinking waiting is just something you survive. Isaiah writes about the payoff of patient waiting, and it’s not what you’d expect:

Isaiah 40:29-31 – He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Notice the progression- SOAR, then RUN, then WALK. That’s backwards from how we’d write it. We’d think soaring is for the elite moments and walking is the baseline. But Isaiah flips it. The walking, the daily grind of ordinary faithfulness while you wait, that’s actually the hardest and most sustained level of endurance there is. Anybody can have a soaring moment. Staying faithful in the WALK, day after day, unremarkable Tuesday after unremarkable Tuesday, that’s where real strength gets built.

Waiting is not wasted time, it’s a training season. In the gym, you don’t get stronger during the rep, you get stronger during the recovery. Ask anybody who lifts- the muscle doesn’t grow while you’re under the bar, it grows while you’re resting, recovering, healing, and getting proper nutrition. The wait IS the workout. While you’re sitting there thinking “nothing is happening,” God’s building something in you that the burst of an instant answer never could.

The verse says those that wait on the Lord will “…renew their strength.” So if you tell me you’re waiting on God, you should be getting…STRONGER. So don’t tell anybody, “Well I’m just waiting on God.” But spiritually you look like the Crypt Keeper. While you wait keep serving, keep diving into His word, keep gathering, keep listening to Him. Don’t stay stuck in Groundhog day just because you haven’t seen your blessing yet.

Back to Augustine for a moment, he wrestled with this exact tension in his Confessions, wondering out loud what time even IS while you’re stuck in it.

“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I know not.”
– Augustine

That’s all of us in a waiting season. We know exactly what time feels like when we’re drowning in it, but we can’t explain why it feels so slow when God says a day to Him is like a thousand years.

That’s not God being distant from your timeline. That’s God operating from OUTSIDE of it, seeing the whole picture while you’re stuck inside a single frame.

And that’s the whole posture shift Peter is after in 2 Peter 3, stop measuring God’s faithfulness by YOUR clock. He’s not slow. He’s sovereign. And we don’t get to see everything He’s doing while we wait, but we get to trust that He’s doing SOMETHING.

All of this, the time to turn, the grace to endure, the strength to wait, all of it finds its full weight at the Cross. Because if you want to know how far God’s patience goes, you don’t have to guess. Paul, writing to Timothy, connects his OWN story straight to the patience of Jesus:

1 Timothy 1:15-16 – Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance- Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

Paul, the guy who dragged Christians out of their homes to be executed, says HIS OWN LIFE is Exhibit A of God’s patience. If God was patient enough to turn a murderer into the guy who wrote half the New Testament, His patience toward YOU, toward your anger, your waiting, your unresolved stuff, is not running out.

The Cross is God’s patience in its final, fullest form, Him absorbing the anger, the judgment, the wrath that our sin actually deserved, so that you and I could have time to turn, grace to endure, and strength to wait. He didn’t lose His patience with you at the Cross. He spent it. All of it. On you.

I want to close by reading this passage once all together and then once just absorbing it. Consider this our benediction, if you will:

5 May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. 6 Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. -Romans 15:5-6 (NLT)

“Hello, My Name is Compassion”

At Gateway Austin, we continued our new series “Hello, My Name Is….”

Your view of God shapes everything—how you pray, how you lead, how you suffer, how you love. What we believe about God will determine the kind of world we imagine we’re living in.

But what if our view of God is all wrong?

Digging Deeper:

Hello, My Name Is Compassion

Message Video from Gateway South Austin:

Message Audio from Gateway South Austin:

Message Notes:

In this series we are looking at the name of God and how He reveals His character to us.

Many of us may have a skewed version of God based on where we grew up or what we’ve heard about Him in our culture. Our hope is that you see the goodness and greatness of God in a fresh and life-changing way over these next several weeks as we look at moments in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, where God reveals Himself to people like Moses, David, Nehemiah, Jonah and others.

You may have thought that the God of the Old Testament is angry. The God revealed in Jesus is kind and loving. The true story is so much better and bigger than that!

Last week, we looked at the origins of when God revealed His name to Moses at the burning bush. Exodus 3 says:

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” – Exodus 3:13-14

As Carlos pointed out, that word YHWH which is translated as “Lord” in English can mean “I am who I am” or “I will be who I will be.” Yahweh speaks of the God who simply is – the God whose existence depends on nothing outside himself, the God who is faithful to himself, the God who is not controlled by circumstances, human approval, or human failure.

God shares more to Moses in Exodus 34 where the passage tells us:

“God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…’” – Exodus 34:6–7

Throughout the rest of the Scriptures we see people quoting this passage. People relate to God through this idea of who He really is.

And today we are looking at how God reveals Himself to be compassionate and gracious.

Think about that for a minute.

Yahweh means the Lord, the Creator of all things, the One through whom all things and all creation exists! The all powerful God who was and is and always will be starts with how he feels towards His creation and that includes you. He is compassionate. He is gracious.

So what do those words mean?

Let’s learn more about this idea through another well known Bible character named King David. We know a lot about what happened to David through the books of 1&2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles, but we know what he was thinking and feeling and about his understanding of God in midst of life’s challenges through the Psalms, the prayers he wrote to God.

So who was David?

King David was a shepherd who became the greatest king of Israel. David was overlooked by his father when Samuel came to anoint a king to replace Saul. Once anointed to be the next king of Israel, he demonstrated his faith in God and his ability to defeat his enemies on the battlefield by defeating Goliath. Later he faced attacks from Saul, the king of Israel, not a king from another tribe!. Even still he trusted God and His timing. Rather than seeking to kill Saul which he had the opportunity to do, he waited until God opened the door to become King. David never lost a military battle. He united the twelve tribes, made Jerusalem the capital, and wrote many Psalms. Despite major personal sins like his affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent death of her husband, the Bible calls him a man after God’s own heart. (We will talk about this remarkable description a bit later), but for now just let me say this. David was called and anointed to be king and even still things did not go smoothly for him. In 1 Samuel 13:14 we see that God is seeking for “a man after his own heart” before Samuel chose David and in Acts 13:22 David was described by God as a man “who will do my will.”

Now at the time in his life when he wrote Psalm 86, David is hunted, betrayed, outnumbered. Yet instead of despair, he remembers. He remembers all the ways God had rescued him in his life and had revealed His character. He quotes the name of God as revealed in Exodus 34 and anchors his prayer in God’s character. We have put in bold the part of the Psalm where he quotes the name of God as given to Moses.

Listen to this prayer from King David who lived 1000 years before Jesus so 3000 years ago.

1 Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. 2 Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; 3 have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. 4 Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. 5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. 6 Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. 7 When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me. 8 Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 9 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. 12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. 13 For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. 14 Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God; ruthless people are trying to kill me – they have no regard for you. 15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you just as my mother did. 17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me. – Psalm 86:1-17

There are several things we can grow to know about God’s compassion and God’s grace through the ways Davd relates to Him.

First, God’s compassion invites us to be honest.

Can’t you just feel David’s anguish?
Can you relate to how he is feeling at this moment?

David was honest about reality.

He felt poor and needy. He lacked joy. He needed to be saved.

Have you ever felt this way? Do you go to God like David did?
You and I can be just as honest to God as he is in these prayers.

You see, faith does not deny fear. It brings fear into God’s presence.

When you understand God’s true nature, you will feel more free to be fully transparent and vulnerable and real.

David understood God’s compassion because He had experienced His forgiveness and His tender mercies time and time again.

If you look up the word “compassion” in the English dictionary it means: “feeling deep sympathy, care, and sadness for people or animals who are suffering or in trouble, and wanting to help fix or ease that pain.”

That is an amazing thought!

Sometimes other English translations of the Bible of the same word can give us even more insight into what this means. Although many use the word “compassion” some versions use the word “merciful” and one of my favorites is the translation that uses “tender mercies”.

Consider that idea: The first characteristic God wants us to know about Him is that He is aware of our pain and feels for us. He feels tender and merciful towards us. He wants to ease our pain.

Now you may be thinking: well He is the Creator of all things, why did He create things in such a way that we experience pain in the first place?

Well, as you probably know He created us for a relationship with Him, but the only way to actually experience a loving relationship is for there to be freedom in that relationship. He didn’t want to create robots to do His bidding or puppets to do what He wants. He created men and women in His image who have the freedom to say “yes” or to say “no” to being in relationship with Him.

In that freedom we chose to go on our way, and those consequences mean separation from Him and His goodness, and He has made a way for us back to Him.

The word compassion gets even more meaningful. Check this out. The Hebrew word for Rachum is used in the Bible almost exclusively to describe God and this word shares a root word with “womb” as in a “mother’s womb.”

God is saying: I feel about you the way a mother feels for her child growing within her. This is a very deep, visceral, and protective love. And this is not just a passive feeling of pity, but a profound emotional stirring that moves someone to rescue, nurture, and protect.

That’s how God feels about you.

A quick and important note about God. The Bible uses both masculine and feminine imagery to describe God. This should not scare us, but comfort us. New York City pastor Tim Keller explains this idea this way: The Bible’s use of “Father” to describe God does not imply that God is a male deity. Because God is spirit, He transcends biological sex. Instead, Keller explains that all human parental love – both the protective, stable love of a father and the fierce, visceral love of a mother – finds its ultimate source and perfect expression in the character of God. Human genders are reflections of the Imago Dei (Image of God); therefore, both maternal and paternal qualities are rooted directly in God’s heart.

By the way, the Bible Project does a great series on all of the name of God.

But wait there’s more, God is not only compassionate, He is also gracious.

You see.

2. God’s favors you.

God is gracious. Listen to how biblical scholars describe the meaning of the Hebrew word for gracious.

It means “spontaneous, undeserved favor” “Chanun” describes a posture of pure generosity. It means giving a valuable gift or showing profound kindness to someone who has no legal claim to it and has done nothing to earn it.

The Psalms dismantle “be good, get blessed.” God’s compassion flows from His nature, not our merit.

The root verb literally conveys the physical action of “bending or inclining toward someone.” It paints a word picture of a superior, wealthy, or powerful ruler voluntarily stooping down to look an inferior in the eye, comforting them, and stepping in to grant them favor and help.

Another scholar said that “while the previous word in the verse “compassion” focuses on a motherly emotional stirring over someone’s plight, “gracious” is the active, generous response that fixes the problem. It is the character trait that transforms abstract pity into an actual, tangible rescue mission.”

In other words, God favors.

So what does that look like?

Notice again how David views God’s heart towards him. He writes:

13 For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. 14 Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God; ruthless people are trying to kill me – they have no regard for you. 15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. – Psalm 86:13-15

Let me ask you a question. I want you to be very honest with yourself.

Do you feel like you experience God’s favor?
Or do you feel like you cannot catch a break from God?

Because here is the honest situation: too often we measure God’s love for us based on our circumstances rather than on His character.

Notice David’s circumstances are not good at all! He is under attack by ruthless and arrogant foes who want to kill him!
Have any of you ever had someone trying to kill you?
No need to raise your hands.

What I am trying to point out is David did not allow His current circumstances – as awful as they were – get in the way of how He viewed God.

You see, he was very aware of all the ways God had come through before.

Are you fully aware of all the ways God has blessed you?
With life? With parents? With health? With friends? With freedom? With opportunity? With healing? With new life?

You may be thinking – I don’t have all those things. Well none of us probably have all those things, but are you focused more on the ones you don’t have are more focused on the ones you do have?

Too many times in my life, I focus on the one or two things that are going the way I want them to go and it overwhelms me – to the point where I am completely blind to all the things that are going incredibly well.

God never promised us a life without suffering. He promised to be with us in our suffering.

Notice when David quotes the name of God:

Even as all the people opposing David attacked him, David says: “But You…”
Psalm 86:15 becomes the part of the passage when David shifts from his circumstances where enemies rage against him to God’s character which does not change.. 15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. – Psalm 86:15

Even when the broken world is far more obvious to us, the truth is the One who created us and the One who holds us and all of creation in His hand is compassionate and gives us good things we do not deserve. He favors us.

How would your life change if you began to see yourself as one of God’s favorites?
You weren’t just lucky. Those weren’t just coincidences.
What if we realized every good gift we have is a gift from God as Jesus’ half-brother James said in his letter to the church. James and Jesus had the same Mom but different Dads.

Listen to what he wrote:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17

Whether you realize it or not, you are blessed and highly favored. And the sooner you realize this (regardless of your circumstances) the closer you will be to understanding who God really is and how He really sees you.

Listen to how the man who could be killed by his enemies viewed God in another Psalm he wrote:

3 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. 4 One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. 5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty – and I will meditate on your wonderful works. 6 They tell of the power of your awesome works – and I will proclaim your great deeds. 7 They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. 8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. 10 All your works praise you, Lord; your faithful people extol you. 11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, 12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. 14 The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. – Psalm 145:3:16

Start noticing God’s goodness around you.
Recognize the great ways he answers the prayers of others even when he doesn’t seem to be answering you own.

Look back in the story of the people of God to see God at work even when it doesn’t seem as obvious to you now.

Have others in your small group or your Sunday serve team help you see what you may be missing.

3. We can become people “after God’s own heart”

David was called that, but what does that mean?

Some biblical scholars point to David’s total reliance on God and his willingness to quickly repent:

Total Reliance: David consistently sought God’s counsel before making major decisions, viewing God as his primary protector and guide rather than just relying on his own royal power.

Deep Repentance: When confronted with his grave sins—such as adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah – David did not make excuses. Instead, he confessed, humbled himself, and sought mercy, as seen in Psalm 51.

You see, David didn’t just know about God, he knew His name. He lived believing God was truly compassionate and gracious even if circumstances seemed to indicate otherwise. He quotes the name of God from Exodus 34 three times in the Psalms.

For David, doctrine became devotion. What he believed about God affected how he faced life. In other words, theology becomes prayer.

Are you a woman after God’s own heart? A man after God’s own heart?
Do you want to know His compassion? Do you recognize His favor?
Do you want to see the world through this understanding of God?

Here’s how: repent and ask for God’s help.

Be honest with God. Ask for help to believe. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for Him to lead you and guide you. Spend time with Him on your own and in community. And then do the things you sense He is calling you to do. The more you do this, the clearer and clearer His voice will become.

4. A holy fear of God draws us closer to God not away from Him.

Fearing God helps us overcome all other fears including fearing people. Reverent awe leads to trusting God. Psalm 103 reframes God not as a distant monarch but a compassionate Father.

13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children — 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. 19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. – Psalm 103:13-19

Do you fear God more than you fear people?
Like do you have a holy respect and an awareness that your life is in His hands?
That you owe Him everything because He gave you life and all good gifts we enjoy?

When you know who God is, you know how to pray – even in the worst moments of your life.

Let’s let God’s character shape our prayers.
Let’s refuse to let crisis determine how you see God.

He is with us. He sees you with compassion and with grace.

When you anchor your prayers in God’s character instead of your crisis, you discover a compassion that does not waver—even when everything else does.

Jesus shows this love for those around Him. He was God in human form.

Listen to Matthew 9:36 – “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus loves you. Perhaps you can admit that too often in life you have felt harassed or helpless. Today, let him be your shepherd to love you, protect you, to bring you into His family, to help you become all who He created you to be.

“Homecoming: Beyond the Table”

At Gateway South Austin, we concluded our series “Homecoming.”

Everyone is searching for a place to belong.

In a world marked by loneliness, hurried schedules, endless distractions, and divided loyalties, we all long for a table where we’re fully known, deeply loved, and truly welcomed. Throughout Scripture, some of God’s most life-changing moments happen around a table. Around the table, strangers become family, stories are shared, grace is experienced, and lives are transformed.

In this series, Homecoming invites us to rediscover the rhythms that shape a life with God. Rooted in the ancient prayer called the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–9), we’ll discover that faith isn’t just something we believe – it’s something that forms us day by day. Jesus echoed the Shema when He called us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, reminding us that following Him is not confined to church services but woven into our homes, our conversations, our work, our neighborhoods, and every ordinary moment of life.

As we gather around God’s table, He reshapes our hearts, reorders our loves, and reminds us who we are. But His table was never meant to end with us. Just as Jesus continually welcomed outsiders, invited skeptics, and made room for sinners, He sends His followers to extend that same invitation to others.

We are formed at God’s table so we can make room for others at His table.

Message Video from Gateway South Austin:

Message Audio from Gateway South Austin:

Message Notes from Carlos Ortiz, Jr.:

Last week, we talked about the table. There is something powerful about a table because some of the most important moments in our lives happen around one. We eat there, but we also talk there. We celebrate there. We grieve there. We catch up after a long day. We tell stories. We listen to one another. We sometimes have difficult conversations, and sometimes we have conversations that we remember for the rest of our lives. A table is ordinary, but God has always used ordinary things to do extraordinary work.

Throughout Scripture, the table becomes a place of fellowship, formation, hospitality, and even mission. But there is something we need to understand today: the table was never intended to become the destination. The table was always meant to prepare us for what comes next.

God gathers His people so that He can send His people. We gather around His Word so that His Word can shape the way we live when we leave. We gather in worship so that worship doesn’t simply happen in this room, but continues in our homes, our workplaces, our schools, our neighborhoods, and our relationships. The table gathers us, but eventually the table sends us.

That’s the movement we see in Deuteronomy 6.

Moses says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” This passage is known as the Shema, and for generations it has been one of the defining declarations of Jewish faith. The word Shema means “hear.” Listen. Pay attention. Remember who God is.

But what I love about the Shema is that Moses doesn’t stop with simply telling Israel what to believe. He immediately begins talking about what that belief should produce in everyday life. He says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

In other words, the Shema isn’t simply about knowing something about God. It is about allowing the reality of who God is to become so deeply embedded in us that it begins to shape the people around us.

And notice where Moses says this is supposed to happen. Not only in the synagogue or church. Not only in a worship service. Not only during a formal Bible study. He says it happens when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

That’s almost another way of saying, “Let your whole life become the classroom.”

Faith was never meant to stay inside our homes or inside our church walls. The gospel was always meant to overflow into ordinary life. And perhaps nowhere is that more important than in the way we influence the generation coming behind us. Because whether we realize it or not, we are always impressing something on our children.

The question isn’t whether we’re shaping them. We are. The question is: What are we impressing on them?

Since last week we looked at the Shema to better understand God, this week we look at the Shema asking how it challenges us? What does it compel us to do?

Receive God’s Love

Before Moses tells Israel to impress God’s Word on their children, he tells them to love God themselves. That’s important because we can’t give away what we haven’t received.

The Shema begins with “Hear.” Then comes “Love.” And only after that does Moses say, “Impress them on your children.” There’s an order to this. We receive before we reproduce. We are formed before we form others. Scripture has to move into our own hearts before it can naturally move through our lives.

This is also where the gospel is so different from religion.
Religion says, “Love God enough, obey enough, try hard enough, and maybe God will accept you.”
But the gospel says something completely different. The gospel says that God has already loved us, already pursued us, and, through Jesus, already made a way for us to come home. We don’t love God in order to convince Him to love us. We love Him because He has loved us first.

That distinction matters when we’re talking about the next generation.

Our children don’t simply need information about God. They need to see what it looks like to be loved by God. They need to see what grace looks like in a real home.You only let your kids watch veggie tales and listen to CCM? Awesome. But is there the fruit of the Spirit evidenced in you? Some of us grew up in no-Harry-Potter-households but mom and dad could turn to Voldemort in the blink of an eye. Our kids don’t need a million “don’ts”. They need to see what forgiveness looks like when someone has genuinely hurt us. They need to see what repentance looks like when we get it wrong. They need to see what faith looks like when the answer to prayer doesn’t come the way we hoped it would.

Because our children are learning from us even when we’re not intentionally teaching them.

This is absolutely true for those of us who are parents, but this is also true of all of us as adults. Kids today are more connected to the adult world more than ever through the internet. They see how adults interact with rage to partisan politics. They see the choices adults are making and it affects them.

For parents and for both biological or spiritual aunts and uncles, They watch what gets our attention. They watch what gets our time. They watch what gets our money. They watch how we talk about people. They watch how we treat people who can do nothing for us. They watch how we respond when we’re frustrated. They watch how we respond when someone disagrees with us. They watch whether our faith seems to be something we practice on Sunday or something that actually shapes our lives on Monday.

We can tell our children that Jesus is loving, but if they grow up in an environment where love is constantly conditional, they’re learning something different. We can tell them that God is gracious, but if they never see grace extended when someone fails, they’re learning something different. We can tell them that Jesus is worthy of everything, but if they consistently see our comfort, success, possessions, or reputation take priority over Him, they’re learning something different.

That’s why Moses begins with, “These commandments are to be on your hearts.”

Before God’s Word is something we impress on our children, it has to be something that has impressed us.

And when God’s love has truly taken root in us, it will eventually find its way into the way we live.

Impress It on Your Children

This is why that phrase in Deuteronomy 6 deserves more attention than we sometimes give it: “Impress them on your children.”

The language is strong. It carries the idea of pressing something deeply into someone, of engraving something so that it becomes part of who they are. Moses isn’t simply telling parents to make sure their children know a few Bible stories. He’s talking about formation. He’s talking about identity. He’s talking about a truth that becomes so deeply woven into everyday life that the next generation begins to understand who they are because of who God is.

And then Moses tells us how to do it.

“Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

That is conversation. It points to the Hebrew word for Impress – Sanan, which can be translated as “Impress by repetition.”

Faith is passed along through conversations more than presentations.

Some of the most important spiritual conversations you’ll ever have with your children may not happen in a church building. They may happen in the car on the way to practice. They may happen at the dinner table. They may happen while you’re driving home from school. They may happen on the couch late at night when your teenager suddenly decides they want to talk. They may happen when your child comes home crying because someone hurt them. They may happen when they fail, when they’re afraid, when they’re excited, when they have questions you don’t know how to answer.

Those moments matter.

Moses says, “When you sit. When you walk. When you lie down. When you get up.”

He’s telling us to use the life we’ve already been given. You don’t have to manufacture spiritual moments. You need to recognize the spiritual moments that are already happening.

Your child says, “I’m scared.” That’s an opportunity to talk about God.
Your teenager says, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” That’s an opportunity to talk about wisdom and prayer.
Your child comes home and tells you someone was cruel to them at school. That’s an opportunity to talk about forgiveness, dignity, and what Jesus teaches us about loving our enemies.
You see someone struggling as you’re walking through the neighborhood. That’s an opportunity to talk about loving your neighbor.
You receive an unexpected provision. That’s an opportunity to stop and say, “Let’s thank God for that.”
You don’t have to turn every conversation into a sermon. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. But you can allow the reality of God to become part of the way your family interprets life.

And it may not always be so obvious. When my children were heading into their teen years, my wife and I were given really good advice. They said: “Once your children stop looking to you and start looking to their friends, always say ‘yes’ to their requests to spend time together.” They were right! Those moments became less and less frequent. They would ask us for a ride to the mall or want to go to some store as their request, but inevitably it was on those trips that they opened up about what was really going on in their lives.

That’s what the Shema is teaching us. “When you sit. When you walk. When you lie down. When you get up.”

In other words, ordinary life becomes discipleship. Remember, the life of a disciple of Jesus is marked by surrender, and when we surrender the daily parts of our life, we are more apt to follow the ways of Jesus.

And parents, grandparents, mentors, and everyone who has someone coming behind them, don’t underestimate the power of that. You may think the big moments are what matter most, but often it’s the accumulation of small moments that shapes a person’s faith.

Over time, those moments become a worldview. They begin to answer the question, “What does it actually look like to follow Jesus?” And that’s what it means to impress God’s Word on the next generation.

Tell the Story

One of the most important ways we impress God’s Word on the next generation is by telling the story.

Psalm 78 tells us that one generation is supposed to tell the next generation about the works of God. Why? Because every generation is only one generation away from forgetting.

Israel had a story they were supposed to remember. They had been slaves, and God delivered them. They had been trapped, and God made a way. They had been hungry, and God provided. They had wandered, and God remained faithful.

My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. They would not be like their ancestors— a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. – Psalm 78:1-8

Again and again, God tells His people: Don’t forget. Tell your children, your grandchildren, the next generation. That’s still part of our calling.

Tell your story.

Tell your children how you met Jesus. Tell them about the season when God provided for you. Tell them about the prayer that God answered. Tell them about the prayer that He didn’t answer the way you expected. Tell them about the people God used to shape your life. Tell them about the mistakes you made and the grace you received.

Your children don’t need parents who pretend they have everything figured out. They need parents who can say, “I’ve seen God be faithful.”
They need to hear you say, “I don’t know why this happened, but I know God is still good.”
They need to hear, “I made a mistake, and I need to ask you to forgive me.”
They need to hear, “Here’s what God has taught me.”

Your story matters because people can argue with doctrine, but it’s much harder to argue with a transformed life.

“This is what Jesus has done in me.” That’s a story worth telling.

And when we tell the story, faith becomes more than information. It becomes an inheritance.

Make Room

But the story doesn’t stop with our families. The gospel always expands the table.

Jesus was constantly making room for people who didn’t naturally belong together. He welcomed Pharisees and tax collectors. He welcomed women and children. He welcomed sinners and outcasts. He welcomed people who were rejected by the religious and social systems of His day.

The gospel continually expands the table.

Our natural instinct is usually the opposite. We create tables where people like us feel comfortable. We surround ourselves with people who think like us, look like us, live like us, and share our values.

But Jesus continually disrupted that instinct.

Think about the story Jesus tells in Luke 10. A man asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” It’s an interesting question because he’s really looking for a boundary. He’s asking, “Who do I actually have to love?”

Jesus responds with the story of the Good Samaritan. A man is beaten and left on the side of the road. Religious people walk by. But the person who stops is a Samaritan, someone Jesus’ audience would not have expected to be the hero of the story.

Jesus turns the question around. Instead of asking, “Who qualifies as my neighbor?” He asks us to become the kind of person who acts like a neighbor.

The gospel doesn’t teach us to identify worthy people, but it does compel us to become people who make room.

And again, our children are watching.

Imagine a child growing up in a home where hospitality is normal. Where neighbors are welcomed. Where friends are invited. Where people from different backgrounds can sit around the same table. Where the lonely have a place. Where generosity isn’t unusual. Where serving isn’t something we talk about but something we practice.

That child begins to learn something about the gospel simply by watching.
They learn that our home isn’t just for us.
They learn that what God has given us can be shared.
They learn that people matter.
They learn that strangers can become friends.
They learn that hospitality isn’t about having the perfect house or the perfect meal. Hospitality is about making room.

And maybe that’s part of what Moses means when he says, “Impress them on your children.”

We don’t simply tell our children to love their neighbor.
We show them what loving a neighbor looks like.

And so I want to ask again: What are you impressing? What are you repeating?
Could it be that we’re impressing something that is temporary: Achievement Comfort Reputation Fear Success is the ultimate goal

Or maybe, by the grace of God, we’re impressing something far more lasting:

That God is faithful. Jesus is enough. That people matter. Grace is real. Our lives belong to God. That our home can have an open door. That the table has room for one more. That following Jesus isn’t just something we say. It’s something we live.

That’s why Deuteronomy 6 is so important.

God isn’t simply asking Israel to raise children who know the right answers. He’s calling them to raise a generation that knows the God behind those answers. A generation that knows His faithfulness, that trusts Him, loves Him. A generation that carries His story forward.

And that is our calling too.

We can’t make the decision for the next generation. We can’t force our children to love Jesus. We can’t manufacture faith in them. But we can give them a story worth remembering.

We can give them a home where faith is real, where conversations and questions are welcomed. We can give them a table where people are welcomed.

We can give them a picture of what it looks like to repent, forgive, serve, pray, worship, and trust God. We can impress God’s Word on them. And someday, when they are sitting around their own tables, our prayer is that they will remember.

They’ll remember the stories and conversations, and how they’re hearts came alive.

A Word to Parents

And maybe some of you hear this and immediately think, “I’ve failed at this.” Maybe you wish you had done more. Maybe you wish you had talked about Jesus more. Maybe there are conversations you wish you could go back and have.

Maybe there are things you wish you had modeled differently. If that’s you, hear the good news of the gospel: there is grace for parents/grandparents too.

You don’t have to be a perfect parent to disciple your children. You need Jesus.

And one of the most powerful things you can show your children is what it looks like to need Jesus.

When you lose your temper…apologize.
When you get it wrong…admit it.
When you don’t know the answer, say…”I don’t know.”
When you need forgiveness…ask for it.
When you’re afraid…pray.
When you don’t understand what God is doing…trust Him anyway.

Let your children see that following Jesus doesn’t mean pretending you are perfect.
That is discipleship and what it means to impress God’s Word on them.

So, hear, O Israel. Hear, Church. Hear, parents. Hear, grandparents. Hear, mentors.

Hear, everyone who has someone coming behind them.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

And then— impress it on your children. Talk about it when you sit. Talk about it when you walk. Talk about it when you lie down. Talk about it when you get up. Carry it beyond the table.

Let your ordinary life become the place where the next generation learns what it means to follow Jesus. And then let that generation carry it further than you ever could.

And this isn’t just for parents.

Discipleship in many ways is re-parenting other people’s kids.
You can actively do this by serving with our kids or teens or young adults. You can do this by leading a small group of adults.
You can do this by befriending someone younger in their faith or someone without faith at your work, in your neighborhood, or among your extended family, and friends.
Ask them questions about their life and spiritual journey.
Share your story. Walk out your faith in your relationship with them and help them find faith and then walk in faith.
Become a big brother, big sister, uncle, or auntie to those around you.

Beyond the table, the mission continues.

Homecoming: Come to the Table

At Gateway in Austin, we began a new series called Homecoming.

Everyone is searching for a place to belong.

In this series, Homecoming invites us to rediscover the rhythms that shape a life with God. Rooted in the ancient prayer called the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–9), we’ll discover that faith isn’t just something we believe – it’s something that forms us day by day. Jesus echoed the Shema when He called us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, reminding us that following Him is not confined to church services but woven into our homes, our conversations, our work, our neighborhoods, and every ordinary moment of life.

We are formed at God’s table so we can make room for others at His table.

Join us this week for Pray First!

Digging Deeper:

Come to the Table

Message Video from Gateway South Austin:

Message Audio from Gateway South Austin:

Message Notes:

Everyone is searching for a place to belong.

Jesus echoed the Shema when He called us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, reminding us that following Him is not confined to church services but woven into our homes, our conversations, our work, our neighborhoods, and every ordinary moment of life.

As we gather around God’s table, He reshapes our hearts, reorders our loves, and reminds us who we are. But His table was never meant to end with us.
Just as Jesus continually welcomed outsiders, invited skeptics, and made room for sinners, He sends His followers to extend that same invitation to others.

We are formed at God’s table so we can make room for others at His table.

Let’s take a look at this beautiful and ancient prayer. Listen to God’s invitation for His people to build lives centered on Him.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. – Deuteronomy 6:4-9

For thousands of years, faithful Jews have prayed these words every morning and evening.

The Shema is more than a prayer to recite; it is a way of life. It calls God’s people to give Him their wholehearted allegiance, to let His truth shape their daily rhythms, and to pass that faith from one generation to the next.

You might have recognized the beginning of the Shema.
When asked by the religious leaders to declare the most important commandment of the 611 found in the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament, Jesus declared it to be the greatest commandment because a life centered on God naturally overflows into love for others.

In a culture pulling our hearts in countless directions, the Shema calls us back to what matters most: loving God completely, allowing Him to shape every part of our lives, and creating space at His table for those who are still searching for a place to belong.

Now Jesus adds another command from the Old Testament to the Shema when sharing the Great Commandment. He also quotes from Leviticus 19:18 which says:

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” – Leviticus 19:18

Notice how Jesus takes these two passages to help us know how to navigate life. He says in Matthew 22:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:37-40

We are invited to know God personally – to love Him and be loved by Him so that we can love others on His behalf. Jesus goes on to say that loving God and loving others is the message of the Scriptures! He’s not just declaring the most important one but the Great Commandment is what the message of God is all about.

God ‘s Love and Pursuit of Humanity

Everyone longs for a place where they are fully known and fully loved.
God is love!

As the Bible says:

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” – 1 John 4:16

“We love because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19

Jesus shows us who God is and He shows us the way to experience His love and bring His love to others!

Scripture begins with God walking with humanity in the Garden and ends with a great wedding feast (Revelation 19). The story of the Bible is the story of a God who continually prepares a table for His people.

The Shema is not merely a command to memorize; it is God’s invitation back into the life humanity was created to enjoy.

In Genesis 1–2, humanity lived in God’s presence, walking with him in the Garden of Eden. God alone was King, and Adam and Eve loved him wholeheartedly. Their hearts, minds, and actions were perfectly aligned with his purposes.

But in Genesis 3, sin fractured that relationship. Humanity stopped trusting God’s voice and began listening to competing voices. Instead of loving God above all else, Adam and Eve loved themselves, power, comfort, and created things. The Bible’s story becomes the story of God restoring what was lost.

The Shema stands at the center of that restoration. God calls his people back to exclusive covenant love:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.”

This is not merely emotional affection. It is the restoration of humanity’s original vocation – to know God, delight in him, and reflect his character into the world.

The Bible ends exactly where it began—but even better.

In Revelation 21–22, heaven and earth become one. God once again dwells with his people. There is no rival king, no idols, no divided hearts. The Shema’s vision is finally fulfilled as God’s people love him perfectly in the New Creation.

The Shema therefore points both backward to Eden and forward to New Creation.

Let’s read it again and notice not only the call towards a loving relationship with God but how to live this out:

The Shema wasn’t merely a prayer Israel memorized – it was the rhythm that reminded them who they belonged to before they stepped into the world.

It’s important to remember the context of when this verse fits into the story of God’s restoration plan.

After the fall of humanity, God chose to bless one man through whom his family would bless all families. He would make this one man – Abraham – into a great nation or people group through whom all nations or people groups would be blessed.

By the way, this is extraordinary! No other world religion indicates care or concern for people beyond their region or beyond their way of viewing the world.
The message of the Bible is that God loves all the world.

In fact, He came to us to rescue us, and His name is Jesus! Jesus ultimately pulled off what ancient Israel was unable to pull off.
Jesus became the One who fulfilled the law and brought healing to the world.
And the message of Jesus continues to spread to every nation, to every people group across the planet!

Back to the story of the Israelites, Abraham truly was blessed and eventually His people lived in the land of Canaan as promised; however, after a famine ravaged the region they moved to Egypt where they were eventually enslaved.

Miraculously, God delivered them from their enslavement demonstrating God’s love for the oppressed and how He works towards freedom of those who are enslaved.
God renews His covenant with His people at Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments.
Sadly, the people rebel and wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
Now the children of those who rebelled are now about to enter into the Promised Land, and God wants to remind them of their covenant relationship.

An important and quick aside as so much gets politicized in our broken world.

The Promised Land God offers to Abraham remains a very contentious issue. People are still fighting over this land and religion is often their motivation. Abraham’s hope was always larger than a strip of real estate. The land was the beginning of God’s plan to restore creation. The promise ultimately points beyond Canaan to the renewed creation inaugurated by Jesus and consummated in the new heavens and new earth (Romans 4:13; Revelation 21–22).

That perspective also illuminates the Shema. The family of Abraham’s calling in the land was never merely to occupy territory but to become a people whose wholehearted love for the one true God would display his character to the nations. The land was the stage; covenant faithfulness was the mission. Jesus fulfills that mission and extends God’s invitation beyond one land to people from every nation, who await the day when God’s presence fills the whole earth.

So back to the Shema, notice the order of events.

God rescues Israel from Egypt and renews His covenant.
Then He says, “Hear, O Israel…”
Obedience always follows grace.
The commands come after redemption.

God doesn’t say, “If you obey me, I’ll become your God.”
He says, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery.”

Everything begins with grace.

One of the most important things to remember from this passage is this…

God invites us.

A relationship with God always begins with God’s invitation, not our performance.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ” – Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Throughout Scripture, God is always the One initiating relationship.

He calls Abraham. He rescues Israel from slavery. He pursues David. Jesus calls fishermen. Jesus invites tax collectors. Jesus eats with sinners. The gospel always begins with invitation.

Not “Come when you’ve cleaned yourself up.” Simply: “Come.”

The table becomes the place where we remember who God is, learn His story, and discover that we belong to something much bigger than ourselves.

We are all invited into a relationship with God!

Now if you have grown up in any sort of religious environment – Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, you may not have understood this quite right. Religions give us rules to follow to get God to love us. In addition our human nature wants to be able to say that we earn whatever we get. In our pride, we want to do good things so that God owes us.

This is not the message of Jesus. God loves us and invites us to follow Him and then out of gratitude and with His help then we live a new life.

Have you said: “yes!” to a relationship with God through Jesus? Do you have God at the center of your life seeking to love Him and love others in the words you say and the actions you take? If so, stay on it! God will guide! If you slip up or get distracted or tempted, just restart!

Just before reminding us of how loving God is, one of the eyewitnesses of Jesus who was one of the 12 disciples named John says:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

Have you said, “yes” only to wander away?
Maybe you have slipped into a more cultural version of Christianity where you believe all the “right things” in your mind but you haven’t let Him change your heart.
Or maybe you have a transactional relationship with God where you trust Him as long as good things happen in your life, but you turn away from Him when He doesn’t answer your prayers the way you want Him to answer them and when you want Him to answer them.

Today you can start afresh! You can come home to the One who created you!

Maybe you are here and still exploring, today can be the day when you find what you are looking for!

To those of you exploring or to those of you who have a more religious view of God, today He invites you into a more loving relationship with Him than you could ever imagine!

He gave His life for you, by dying on the cross taking upon Himself all of the evil choices you have made and evil thoughts you have had. And by the way, we are all broken. All of us have made terrible choices and have had dark thoughts. Even still, God loves you!

So how then do you begin this relationship with our loving God?

It’s simply saying “yes” to His invitation.

Ask for forgiveness. Ask that what Jesus did on the cross would count for you. Ask Him to lead you and guide you! Ask Him to help you surrender everything else that He would be the center of your life!

God loves and then we respond.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:8-10

When we say “yes” to a relationship with God through Jesus, we are forgiven! We are made new! We are adopted into His family! We receive the Holy Spirit within us to convict, guide,, and empower us!

And now out of gratitude and with His help, we live a new life! We begin to listen to His voice each day and do the good works He invites us to do!

The Hebrew word Shema means more than hearing. It means hearing with the intention of responding. Listening that changes your life.

For those of us who are parents, we use this idea all the time. When we say to our kids: “You’re not listening. We don’t mean they didn’t hear us (although that could be the case at times). Usually we mean: “you may have heard my words, but you did not put them into action.”

When God says we need to listen, that also means we need to do what we hear Him say.

To become the person the One who created us designed us to be means allowing Him to be at the center of our life and following His lead.

Here’s what is amazing, are you thinking: “I want to believe, but I just have so many questions.” That’s good! That’s honest! Just wanting to believe puts you in a good spot!

If that’s you try this prayer: “God, help me believe.”

There is a story of a man who came to Jesus for help as his son was having convulsions. He asked Jesus to heal his son saying:
“If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Jesus responded: “‘If you can’? Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” – Mark 9:22-24

I love that prayer “I do believe [pause]; help me overcome my unbelief!”

So I just want to pause for a moment in the middle of this message to give you a chance to connect with God.

If you are fully surrendered but needing to confess something, now is your chance to do that.

If you are wanting to restart a relationship (not have a religious view of God) or fully surrender for the first time, now is an opportunity to do this.

If you want to believe, ask Him to help you.

Right now, in the silence, connect your heart to God on your own in your own heart and mind. If you are in a good place, prayer for others during this time.

Examples of how to pray:

“Heavenly Father, forgive me for going my own way. Jesus, I ask that you would forgive me and become my leader, my Lord. Holy Spirit, come into my life and guide me to live a fully surrendered life.”

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

If you prayed this for the first time or this is the first time you are understanding it’s his grace and not your works that enables you to have this relationship with God, we are so excited for you and want to ask that you let us know so we can serve you in your journey. Just use the connect card to indicate that today you have decided to follow Jesus.

Back to the Shema, the 2nd thing we notice is that…

God forms us.

Let’s read it again:

We are shaped by daily rhythms—prayer, Scripture, worship, meals, conversations, and community.

Faith grows through everyday rhythms, not extraordinary moments.

“Talk about them when you sit…walk…lie down…get up.”

Notice that Moses doesn’t describe spectacular moments. He describes ordinary life. The greatest spiritual formation doesn’t usually happen at special events. It happens during breakfast, on the drive to school, at bedtime, during difficult conversations, and in everyday faithfulness.

The Shema assumes discipleship is woven into life.

Transformation happens over time as we consistently return to God’s presence.

Transformation almost always feels slow. Most things grow slowly like seeds becoming trees, children becoming adults. This is also true of those who are disciples of Jesus.

Devotion is repeated faithfulness over time. Growth isn’t usually dramatic but it’s cumulative. Growth happens over a meal, through our prayers, through conversations, and through every act of obedience.

God uses ordinary faithfulness to produce extraordinary fruit.

The rhythms God gives us are reminders of grace. We become what we worship. If our daily rhythms revolve around success, comfort, achievement, or approval, those things shape our hearts. Everyone is being discipled by something. The question isn’t whether you’re being formed, but what is forming you?

In this next season, how can you prioritize your relationship with God so that He remains the center of your life?

Are there some things at work that you need to turn down or ways to bring God in?

Are there things with your kids busy lives that you need to say “no” or “maybe later” or can you be a light and more intentional reaching out to others at those practices and games?

Are there ways you can make coming on Sundays more possible?
Is there a group during the week or a team on Sundays with which you can join?

Is there a way God is calling you to start something new here with us, in your neighborhood, or at your work?

And finally, the Shema teaches us…

God gives us a family.

No one follows Jesus alone. The Church is a family where everyone has a seat.

Ancient Israel never imagined someone following God by themselves. The Shema was communal. “Hear, O Israel…” Not: “Hear, isolated individual.”

We saw this as we went through the book of Acts this past spring and into the summer. Acts 2 echoes this beautifully.

Just after the message Peter shared at Pentecost in Acts 2, notice the response from the people and how they lived their lives together.

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. – Acts 2:41-47

The early believers devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. Notice how often meals appear. They didn’t merely attend services. They shared lives. The table became a picture of the Kingdom. Everyone needed everyone. The church isn’t an event but a family.

We cannot fully become the person God has created us to be without being in community. We need encouragement and accountability. We need other people!

And when we start to follow Jesus, we are part of His family! That means we become aunties and uncles, big sisters, and big brothers, and even spiritual moms and spiritual dads to those we lead to faith and help grow in their faith.

God invites us into relationship.

He invites us to the table where He forms us and where we enjoy family, community. We are formed at God’s table so we can make room for others at His table.

As we close, I want to share a practical challenge with you.

Practical Challenge

This week, intentionally gather around a table.
Share one meal without distractions with your roommates, your small group, or your family.
Pray together with your family or with a friend each day.
Begin the Pray First devotional.
Ask someone to share how God has been faithful in their life.
Create space for spiritual conversations at home, school, or at work.

“A Fresh Start”

Feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or in need of a fresh start? In this encouraging Bible message from Isaiah 30, discover how trusting God, letting go of idols, and following the Holy Spirit lead to true spiritual transformation, inner peace, and lasting hope through Jesus Christ. If you’re searching for biblical wisdom, Christian encouragement, or a deeper relationship with God, this message will help you experience the rest, strength, and guidance only He can provide.

Message Video:

Message Audio:

Message Notes:

Have you ever been exhausted and just wanted to quit?

Maybe you are feeling this way now. You keep trying to move forward only to experience resistance. You take 2 steps forward only to be pushed backwards 3 steps.

Maybe you felt this way before the summer, but you’ve had some restful moments this summer. I hope that has been your experience.

Or maybe you are here and the better question to ask you is this: have you ever needed a new start?

As the summer begins to wind down and as we enter a new month and a new season, we can take advantage of the calendar to put into practice some new mindsets and new practices.

This summer I’ve been reading through the book of Isaiah. It’s not an easy read because the prophet Isaiah has been sent to warn the people of Israel. They are going the wrong direction and need to make some important changes. In Isaiah’s warnings there are lots of prophecies of the end of an era for different tribes because of their rebellion against God and His ways.

In the midst of so many rebukes and warnings, there are some beautiful promises that we can hold onto today.

Let’s take a look at one of the passages in Isaiah 30.

“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge….

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.” Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols … [and] throw them away… and say to them, “Away with you!” He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.” – Isaiah‬ ‭30‬:‭1‬-‭2‬, ‭15‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Let’s pull out some principles that we can apply to our life today.

God is the One to follow and to trust.

In many ways the Bible shares the story of a loving, just, and holy God who loves humanity and has made a way for us to know Him.

In His love He has given us freedom and in that freedom we often choose to go to other gods (little “g” gods) besides Him.

Coming to Him requires turning to Him and His wisdom, acknowledging we need Him because our way and our wisdom are not working.

What we see in the beginning of this passage is that the people have turned from God to Egypt for their help and rescue.

Remember the people of Israel had been enslaved by Egypt so they are going back to their oppressor in hopes of being rescued.

This is like an addict going back to their addiction for help. That never goes well.

What are Your Idols?

Where do you go when you are overwhelmed?

Do you turn on the TV, eat some ice cream, doomscroll on your phone, or drink some alcohol?

Now all of these can be fun or even fine in moderation, but they can also become idols.

We may have other places we go that aren’t fine at all. Instead, they are destructive.

A pastor who served for many years in New York City named Tim Keller wrote a great book on idols called “Counterfeit Gods”

In that book he points out that an idol is anything we go to for comfort or purpose or our identity that isn’t God.

This means we can turn what God gave us as a gift into a god if we aren’t careful.

Here’s how you know if you have shifted your heart towards a counterfeit god.

An idol is anything in your life that is more important than God to you:
If something, like a career, social standing, or even a relationship including a spouse or child, is more central to your life than God, it becomes an idol.

An idol is anything that absorbs your heart:
An idol is something that captures your emotions and desires to a degree that you can’t live without it.

An idol is anything you seek to give you what only God can give: This includes things like security, meaning, happiness, or self-worth, which can become idols when you seek them from something other than God.

An idol is anything you can’t live without: If you feel your life is meaningless or worthless without something, it’s likely an idol.

The invitation throughout the Bible is to worship the One True God.

In fact, later in this passage the prophet Isaiah says to the people: “Then you will desecrate your idols … [and] throw them away… and say to them, “Away with you!” – Isaiah 30:22

Too often we come to God more like he’s Santa Clause or a genie in a bottle.

We expect Him to give us what we want and when we don’t we stop coming to Him.

Let me just pose this question: do you approach Jesus this way?

Do you follow Him only for what you can get from him?

It’s an important question to consider.

We are so broken and often so selfish that if we aren’t careful we can see our relationships as transactional – even our relationship with God.

By transactional I mean you are in the relationship only for what we can get from the other.

The moment we don’t get what we want in a friendship, at a job, in a marriage, or even with Jesus, we move on.

According to religious sociologists the number 1 prevailing view of God in the US is something called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. You may have accidentally bought into this idea because it prioritizes happiness and being nice or good in order to get to heaven.

You may be slipping into this if you don’t go to God unless you need help or want him to bless something you’ve already done.

We are invited into something so much deeper!

We are invited into a relationship with God through Jesus where His Spirit lives within us, guides us, convicts us, and helps us become more like Jesus – loving God and loving others.

A relationship where we experience his presence, peace, joy, love, and kindness and bring that glimpse of heaven to others.

You see God’s ways lead to life and light.
Going against His ways lead to death and darkness.

Turning to God and trusting God meets our deepest needs.

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…”

Isn’t that a beautiful promise?

Who doesn’t want to really rest. I am not talking about having a good book to read by the pool or tubing down the lazy river. I am talking about rest for your soul. We have such a restlessness in our culture. We grab for our phones all throughout our waking hours just to get that next dopamine hit. We have brains addicted to screens and nonstop action.

Let me encourage you with something. Stop.

Just pause. Take a deep breath. Rest in Him.

Take time for silence. Take time for solitude. Take time for Sabbath. Each Friday I am trying to take the day off from my phone just to reset and rest. Sabbath is a way to acknowledge our trust in God. I can take one day away from work and enjoy God and the gifts He has given me.

Unfortunately, we have a hard time repenting – which means turning away from our ways and turning to God. We have a hard time resting in Him. We have a hard time remaining quiet and a hard time trusting.

When we do though we will experience being delivered or rescued which is what salvation means here. We will experience His strength.

Sadly the people of Israel had a hard time with this too. Let’s read the passage again with the rest of what Isaiah wrote.

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’” – Isaiah 30:15

In other words, they decided not to trust God. They felt their circumstances were bigger than God so they would rely on other things besides God.

They decided to take matters into our own hands. They decided to do it their way instead of God’s way.

Here’s the irony: when we finally let go and surrender, we have the power to become the person God created us to be – which is the far better version than we could have ever pulled off ourselves!

We underestimate the power of the Father that we have access to!

You and I can only do so much in our own strength.
Remember: Our Father is always stronger.

We aren’t capable of carrying the weight of the world on our back!
And we aren’t even asked to do so, so why do we keep trying?!

We can rest in the power of our Father! He can carry us, transform us, and send us out to change the world because His Spirit is within us!!

Remember, we don’t just repent once in our lifetime.
We confess our need for Jesus and we turn from our way to His way to begin our relationship with Him, but that is also how we grow in Him!
We confess and repent every day and even throughout the day.

Every time we start trying to do things in our own power, in our own understanding, in our own strength, we need to confess and turn back to Him and let Him transform us, equip us, and guide us.

How we come to a relationship with God through Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We come to Jesus by grace through faith – in other words because of his love for us and our acknowledgment that we need him.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7)

So we start our relationship by grace through faith and that is how we live for him every day. Aware of his love for you and stepping out in faith – acting on what we sense He wants us to do that day and each moment.

God longs to be gracious to you.

We are invited into a relationship with the Creator of the Universe!
He can become closer than a father, a friend, a spouse, or any human relationship because only He knows all of who we are and loves us. Only He can be there for us 100% of the time.

Listen again to God’s heart for the people even when they are in rebellion.

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! – Isaiah 30:18-19

He goes on to promise even more as they turn to Him and away from their idols.

“He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.” – Isaiah 30:23

You see, every good gift we have is from God. When our hearts are filled with an awareness of our blessings and with gratitude, the anxiety disappears.

In fact, recently scientists have discovered you cannot be both anxious and grateful at the same time. Your brain has to switch one off to turn the other on.

Meditate on God’s goodness, His compassion, and justice.

He hears us.

He doesn’t promise a life without suffering. He promises to be with us in the suffering.
And God can use the suffering to help us find deeper healing and deeper connection with Him and with others.
He weeps with those who weeps. He comforts those who need comfort.

Notice again what Isaiah says about adversity and God’s presence with us in it:

As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” – Isaiah 30:19b-21

God allows us to face our consequences sometimes. Sometimes He rescues us from what our consequences. Sometimes God allows us to have what we want – even though it is not what’s best for us.

It’s never too late to turn to Him.

And notice the 5th principle I wanted to mention from this passage:

The Spirit will guide us.

He allows us to go through life’s challenges because He loves us enough to give us freedom. Sometimes we make decisions with that freedom that hurts ourselves or others.

Sometimes other people use that freedom to hurt us or others or themselves.

But God has not abandoned us to a life without His help.

He came to us. He walked among us. His name is Jesus.

He taught with authority, healed the sick, cared for the outcast, confronted the religious leaders, and ultimately willingly died as He took on the sins of humanity. Yet on the 3rd day, He rose from the dead! He promised His Spirit to be with us once we surrender our lives to follow Him!

His Spirit is within us! When we surrender our lives with Jesus at the center, the same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives inside of us!

Are you looking for God to be at work?

God is wanting to show you the way. You need to listen.

The problem is not that God is not speaking. The problem is we aren’t listening!

Do you see how He may be answering your prayers in ways you didn’t expect?

Are you sensitive to the Spirit?

If not, ask Him for His help and start today!

“The Way: Gather (Planted Together)”

At Gateway Church in Austin, we started a new series called The Way.

Following Jesus is less prescriptive and more descriptive. We are given a general framework by the early disciples of how to live out the teachings of Jesus and follow his way. They are simple, but not easy, they are repeatable but grow more difficult, they allow anyone who believes to choose to follow, and all who remain faithful will grow stronger over time. We are like a tree planted by His waters, we grow strong in Him, and we become an immovable force in God’s kingdom.

Digging Deeper:

Work through the following questions and Bible study with your roommates, family, or small group:

Gather

Message Video from Gateway South Austin:

Message Audio from Gateway South Austin:

Message Notes by Carlos Ortiz, Jr.:

The Great Reset That Became a Great Setback

A few years ago, many of us were told that the COVID shutdown would be the Great Reset.
A pause.
A recalibration.
An opportunity to rebuild something better.

But if we are honest—pastorally honest, spiritually honest—for many, it did not become a great reset. It became a great setback.

Instead of gathering, we isolated.
Instead of growing, we shrank back.
Instead of giving, we protected what was ours.
Instead of going, we stayed inside increasingly small, carefully curated bubbles.

Now, some of that was necessary. Much of it was done out of love and caution. But something subtle happened beneath the surface of our lives. What began as a temporary disruption quietly reshaped our habits, our expectations, and even our understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.

The Christian life, which is inherently communal, embodied, and outward-facing, became increasingly individualized, virtual, and inward.

And here’s the danger: what begins as a season can become a system.

That is why in 2026 we are wanting to disrupt that system, and so we are calling our church to a realignment.
A return.
A replanting.
A re-centering on the ancient, resilient, life-giving practices of the people of God.

We are called to be people of The Way!

Psalm 1 gives us one of Scripture’s most enduring images of spiritual formation:

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”

Notice what Scripture does not compare us to.

Not a machine.
Not a startup.
Not a productivity system.

But we are compared to A TREE!.

Trees grow slowly.
They grow quietly.
They grow invisibly before they grow visibly.
And their strength is not measured by speed, but by rings—each one marking endurance through drought, storm, cold, and heat.
You cannot rush a tree.
You cannot fake its growth.
And you cannot see its deepest strength on the surface.

Following Jesus works the same way.

Now we all fall into one of 3 categories:

First, we are either following Jesus with our whole hearts which means we are a disciple of Jesus which means we are wanting to live and love like Him.

Or second, we are exploring God and considering the claims of Jesus and considering a life surrendered to Jesus.

Now there is a third category that is the result of living in a culture where Christianity has been the dominant worldview and that is someone who would describe himself or herself as someone who believes in Jesus but isn’t really following Him right now.
If that’s you, I want to encourage you to reconsider as this is not truly an option.
Today is your opportunity to recommit your heart and life to following Jesus or be honest that you are open-minded spiritually and open to hearing what it means to truly follow Jesus so you can decide.

This series can help all of us move closer to God and who He’s created us to be no matter which category best describes us as we came here today.

Now one of the great misunderstandings of growing in Jesus, and being a disciple, is that Christianity gives us a rigid, hyper-detailed checklist for spiritual success.

But when you read the New Testament carefully, especially the Gospels and the early church, you find something different.

Jesus does not give His disciples a spreadsheet.
He gives them a way of life. He literally says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

It is less prescriptive—do these exact things in this exact order—and more descriptive—this is what life looks like when Jesus is at the center of your life or as the early followers of Jesus would say, this is what life looks like when Jesus is Lord.

What does the word “Lord” mean?

We usually only hear it when watching Star Wars and they refer to Lord Vader.

Well, the Jewish people held such reverence and respect for God that when reading the Hebrew Scriptures, every time they would see the word “Yahweh” – which is the name of God and means “I Am” – they would say the word “Adonai” which means “the Lord” – “the One who has all authority and power and dominion.”

So then when the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament) was translated into Greek, every time the name of God appeared, they translated “Yahweh” as “Kurios” which means “Lord.”

Just as the Romans would say: “Caesar is Lord,” the early followers of Jesus would say “Jesus is Lord.” In other words, they were saying: “Jesus is Yahweh.” They were saying: “Jesus is God and has supreme authority over all things including my life.”

That’s why we are spending this season walking together through Matthew 28 and Acts 2, the same framework we have walked our staff and leaders through over this past year.

Each week, we will read these passages in full.
And let me please give you the “why” behind us doing this every week.
Formation happens not through novelty, but through repetition.

The Framework

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” – Matthew 28:16–20

Notice: worship and doubt. Authority before activity. Presence after commission.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…
All the believers were together…
Every day they continued to meet together…
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:42–47

This is not a program. It is a pattern.

Simple—but not easy.
Repeatable—but increasingly costly.
Accessible—but deeply formative.

So the key idea today is this: We are called by God to create intentional environments for meaningful connection with Him and with each other.

When we choose to follow Jesus, our life is not sedentary. It is not passive. It is not something we consume.

It is a movement in our hearts and lives -—a transformational movement in the way of Christ.

And every movement begins with gathering.

In Hebrews 10, the author tells us:

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess…
not giving up meeting together… but encouraging one another.”

Notice the language: hold, spur, encourage. These are active verbs.

Gathering is not a religious obligation.
Gathering is a countercultural act of resistance.

In a fragmented world, gathering says we belong to one another.
In a distracted world, gathering says we will pay attention together.
In a fearful world, gathering says Jesus is still Lord.

This is why the early church gathered daily.
Not because they were super-Christians, but because they were spiritually realistic.
They knew formation happens through proximity, presence, and practice.

Psalm 1 begins not with what we do, but with what we walk toward and sit among.

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked… but whose delight is in the law of the Lord.”

Formation happens by proximity.

You are shaped by what you regularly place yourself near.
You grow toward what you consistently gather around.

The psalmist doesn’t say the blessed person is brilliant or busy—but planted.

So how do we know when we are gathering for the right purpose?

Three Marks of Gathering in the Way of Jesus:

1. Center the Presence of God

Gathering is not first about us connecting with each other—it is about all of us orienting ourselves around God.

In Acts 2, the church devoted themselves to teaching, prayer, and worship.
Awe filled the room.

We gather not to manufacture emotion, but to rehearse reality:

Jesus reigns.
Grace is real.
The Spirit is present.

The presence of God is not an accessory—it is the center.

Do you know the story of the beginning of bells ringing to Center people back to worship?
Bishop Paulinus of Nola, Italy (400 AD) is credited with creating this practice of using handbells for monks, and it later spread during the middle ages to churches in town squares using church bells. People would hear the bells and it created this effect of knowing that was the moment to reconnect with God and make him the primary focus. A time to pray, remember, worship, gather.

What is calling out to us today? What is our constant reminder that centers Christ again?

Like streams of water nourishing a tree, His presence sustains growth we cannot force.

2. Connect Meaningfully With Others

“All the believers were together.”

This is more than attendance.
This is a shared life.

They ate together.
They shared resources.
They opened homes.

Our faith does not grow in rows alone—it grows in circles.

Isolation weakens faith. Community strengthens it.

This is why gathering is not optional for discipleship. You cannot grow deep roots alone.

When you come on Sundays, and it’s important to make coming on Sundays a priority, come praying this prayer: “God, what do you have for me today? And what do you want from me?”

Come anticipating God to move in your heart – through the message, through the music, through the time of prayer in your seat, through conversations in the lobby, or through His still, small voice.

Come anticipating God to move through you – whether it’s while you are serving the children or the middle schoolers or serving with hospitality or as a greeter or meeting someone sitting near you or an encouraging conversation in the lobby or courtyard, or praying for someone who has shared their heart with you.

The first followers of Jesus met on the first day of the week, on Sunday, to remember the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They also met in homes.

Coming on Sundays is a great first step, but the next step for your real growth means gathering in a group.

It could be a serving team on Sunday or a small group during the week where you are digging deeper into the message from Sunday and the Scriptures or participating in a class like Alpha where you share a meal and discuss life’s biggest questions.

What is your group in this next season?
Who knows you and who do you know?
Who is helping you grow and who are you helping grow?

Let me ask you this: when is the last time you’ve shared a meal at someone else’s house? Or perhaps even more convicting, when is the last time you’ve hosted a meal at your house?

We need community.
We need to start new habits in 2026 or restart habits we’ve lost and experience life with others.

3. Proclaim Jesus and the Kingdom of God

Every true gathering is outward-facing.

Acts 2 ends with this striking line:

“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

When the church is centered on God’s presence and connected in love, witness becomes inevitable.

We proclaim the message and life of Jesus not merely with words, but with a visible alternative way of life.

Yes, when we are all planted together, we are like an orchard. You may be one tree, but when you are planted together with other trees, you can create an ecosystem and a strength you could never have on your own. I looked up the benefits of an orchard ecosystem…here they are:

Reduced Inputs: Natural pest control and fertility from beneficial organisms decrease the need for sprays and fertilizers.
Increased Resilience: Greater plant and genetic diversity makes the system more robust against pests and diseases.
Enhanced Biodiversity: Supports rare and endangered species by providing essential habitats.
Improved Soil Health: Healthy soil biology retains moisture and provides nutrients.

Look again at Psalm 1: “Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”

If you were like a tree, let me ask you: How is your tree looking? In order for this orchard, this church to thrive, we all have to be planted and growing like a tree, but trees grow one ring at a time, one year at a time. Each ring tells a story:
– seasons of abundance
– seasons of scarcity
– storms survived
– drought endured

As someone who follows Jesus, our lives are not about avoiding hardship, but being formed through hardship.

When we gather consistently – through joy and sorrow, certainty and doubt – we grow rings. And over time, we become resilient, grounded, immovable.

So what about this year of Realignment?

This is not about guilt.
This is about grace-driven clarity.

We are not trying to recreate 2019.
We are responding faithfully to the Scriptures in 2026.

This is a year of realignment—returning to the simple, powerful practices that shaped the early church and sustained the people of God for centuries.

Gathering is not the finish line.
It is the soil.

And if we are planted by His waters—together—we will grow.

Slowly.
Steadily.
Faithfully.

And in time, we will become an immovable force for the kingdom of God.

“For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous…”

May we be found planted, gathering together.

Good News! (Christmas Eve 2025)

At Gateway Church in Austin we celebrated the birth of Jesus – God with us!

A Humble Birth with Eternal Implications

Bethlehem, Judea — In the quiet hours of the night, far from royal courts and public announcement, a child was born who many are calling the long-awaited hope of Israel.

Mary, a young woman from Nazareth, gave birth to her firstborn son while staying in Bethlehem due to the recent imperial census. With the town crowded beyond capacity, the child was laid in a manger — an ordinary feeding trough — a striking contrast to the extraordinary claims surrounding His arrival.

Witnesses report that angels appeared to shepherds in nearby fields, declaring the birth of “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” These shepherds arrived swiftly, confirming the sign they were given: a baby wrapped in cloths and lying among the animals. Upon seeing the child, they spread the message widely, leaving many astonished at what they had heard.

Religious scholars note that the child’s birth aligns precisely with ancient prophecies foretelling that a ruler would come from Bethlehem, the city of David — one whose kingdom would not be established by force, but by peace.

Though born in obscurity, this child has already drawn the attention of heaven and earth alike. Some believe this moment marks the arrival of God with us, stepping into human history not as a conqueror, but as a servant.

As news spreads from shepherds to households, from fields to marketplaces, one truth becomes clear: this message is meant to be heard.“How can they believe if they have not heard?”
— Romans 10:14

Message Video from Gateway South Austin:

Message Audio from Gateway South Austin:

Message Notes from Carlos Ortiz, Jr.:

SONG: O Holy Night

In 1847, a priest in France, asked Placide Cappeau, a wine merchant and poet, to write a Christmas poem for the church. Inspired by the Gospel of Luke, he wrote “Minuit, chrétiens” (“Midnight, Christians”) while on a stagecoach ride, imagining the nativity scene. The song debuted at a Christmas Eve midnight Mass in 1847.

In 1855, a minister named John Sullivan Dwight translated the carol into English. An abolitionist, one of the Christians advocating against slavery emphasized the lines about breaking chains and ending oppression, making it resonate deeply in America, especially the North during the Civil War.

In 1906, the first radio broadcast was on Christmas Eve. Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden broadcast the first human voice over radio, reciting Luke’s Gospel and playing “O Holy Night” on his violin from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.

Here’s some of what he read on that first ever radio broadcast…

Luke 1:26-35 says this,

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

So what is Mary told about Jesus in this short passage from the Angel Gabriel?

She was told 3 things:

She would conceive and give birth to a son (Jesus)
Jesus would be great and called the Son of the Most High
Jesus would reign forever over a kingdom that has no end

These were the 3 most important things to note, and the rest of the list of miracles were simply signs of his greatness, signs of his ties to the most high, and signs of what was to come.

Mary didn’t have to know all of the details of her son’s life, she didn’t have to have the play by play of what he would become, she merely had to have the faith that God was going to send his son into the world, and that he would reign on a throne forever.

And part of that forever is that here we are, over 2000 years later, in His kingdom. His Kingdom is an invisible Kingdom with no borders or manmade boundaries. It is not advanced by weapons of war or politics but through faith, love, and hope – passed from one person to another when we choose to believe.

So what kind of questions does this present to us?

Like Mary, we are presented with this good news of Jesus, and our faith is pricked to know Him and to know Him more and more, over and over.

Similar to Mary’s 3 revelations of Jesus, I wonder on this day if we could answer three simple questions:

The first is this, if Mary was asked this question in the song, could we answer it just the same.

Do We Know?

Do we know that God, the creator and father of all, sent his son Jesus into the world?

John 3:16a – 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…

The second question is this,

Have We Heard?

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Have we heard the good news of who Jesus is. People will talk about faith, and having it, but Romans 10 tells us that faith comes from hearing, and hearing about who Jesus is, comes from Scripture.

The third question is this,

Do We Believe?

This build up is seen as we continue in the John 3 passage:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Do you believe?

And not in the same way we ask the question about believing in Santa!

Do you believe that the God who created you, sent his Son to this earth to be with us, and that his life, death and resurrection set him up to rule a kingdom that has no end.
And that all of THIS was done for you and I, so that we would not be condemned, but embraced despite our sin and shame.
Do you believe that you are loved by a God like this?

I know days like today can be sentimental.

We are surrounded by family, or a lack of family.
We have kids running around, or maybe there are no wide eyed children in our lives.
We have wealth to buy what we want, or we are struggling for our basic needs.
We love this season, or this season is difficult for a plethora of reasons.
But the emotion of the season does not add or even take away from the truth of who Jesus is. The season doesn’t dictate our belief or disbelief.

This season is really about one thing…the truth.

The next verse in this same passage starts with, and “this is the verdict,” in other words, “this is the bottom line,” let’s read along…

John 3:

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Do you know there’s a Savior and his name is Jesus?

Now that you’ve heard, will you truly hear that he is calling out to you today?

Today, you too can believe wholeheartedly!

And when we truly believe we allow our lives to come out of the darkness and into His light.

He is the light, the source of light, and that light exposes the darkest parts, sins, and shame of our life.

Not to chastise you, or to condemn you, but to bring us to repentance…a turning from what we do and who we are in the dark, TOWARDS his light, and a new way of being. HIS WAY!

In 1962, our part of the world was in despair, and there were rumors of war that would upend our way of life.

We were enduring the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Noel Regney, a French WW II veteran, and his wife Gloria Shayne (a pianist), wrote and composed a song out of this despair and heavy time.

They were in New York City during the fall of 1962, when it hit them that Christmas time was coming but peace was eluding the world, that was until they saw the faces of two young kids who were full of smiles and joy, and it marked them.

So they penned a song about peace when the hope of peace was fading.

They wrote a song about the light and peace of a Savior.

A plea for the light of Jesus to invade the darkness.

SONG: Do You Hear What I Hear?

We just sang these words:

“The child, the child, sleeping in the night…He will bring us goodness and light.”

That’s what this moment represents. When everything feels dark, it doesn’t take much light to change the room. One flame. One spark of hope.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

So as we light these candles, let this be a picture, of the light of Christ entering the darkness, of hope spreading, of goodness and light filling the world. I’m going to light the first candle…and then we’ll pass that light from person to person, until this room is filled.

Will you please grab your candles and stand with me? (say this up top or right here)

And as the light spreads, let’s sing together.

SONG: Silent Night

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Bryants and The Roperts!

“Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights….” – James 1:17

In 2025, we have so much to be thankful for!

Trevi married Adrien in France in the church where they met 4 years ago. She is a Recreation Director for the City of Austin and he works with students and guests at Gateway Buda. They live in an apartment near downtown Austin.

Caleb has his own apartment and works at Tito’s Vodka.

Deborah works as a pediatric occupational therapist. She enjoys treating her kids in English and in Spanish.

Eric continues to serve at Gateway South Austin which has become like an extended family now after 15 years. He works with an amazing staff team and some truly talented and passionate volunteers. In addition, Eric founded InnovativeChurchLeaders.org to catalyze spiritual awakening in North America by helping pastors experience and bring renewal. He even got to interview his theological hero – N.T. Wright!

As empty nesters, Eric and Deborah enjoy exploring Austin and the hill country, long walks and hikes, movies, trying new restaurants, and traveling when we can.

This year Eric went with a mission team to India and to Minneapolis coaching pastors. Together the family enjoyed Amiens for the wedding and Paris for a few days after. Eric and Deborah went to Lyon and Nice. We also enjoyed some time in Arkansas, Los Angeles, Columbus, and Las Vegas with Eric’s Mom to see The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere.

May God bless you and yours this Christmas and in 2026!

“Christmas Blockbusters: The Meaning of Christmas”

At Gateway Church in Austin, we continued our Christmas Blockbusters series with The Grinch.

Movies move us…they stir our emotions, awaken our imagination, and often point us to something greater.

In Christmas Blockbusters, we are exploring beloved holiday classics to discover how God’s truth shows up in unexpected places…through stories of love, grace, and redemption that echo the greatest story ever told.

Digging Deeper

Work through the Bible study and the discussion questions with your small group, roommates, or family.

Digging Deeper

Message Notes:

Today we’re diving into The Chronicles of Narnia, written by one of the most brilliant storytellers of the last century, C.S. Lewis. You may not realize it, but Lewis wasn’t just a fantasy writer, he was also a deep thinker, a teacher at Oxford, and close friends with another legendary author, J.R.R. Tolkien, the guy who gave us The Lord of the Rings. Can you imagine being in that friend group? Two guys just casually creating whole worlds over coffee.

But what’s fascinating about C.S. Lewis isn’t just his imagination, it’s his story. He actually grew up in church, was baptized and confirmed as a young boy, but by the time he was 15, he walked away from faith altogether. He called himself an atheist because, in his words, faith just felt too
hard and too joyless to be real. Maybe you’ve felt that way before; disappointed, disillusioned, or hurt by faith or church.

But Lewis’ story didn’t end there. Years later, his friend Tolkien challenged him to take another look at Jesus. After a long journey of wrestling with questions and truth, Lewis finally encountered Christ for himself, and it completely changed him. He wrote a book about that transformation called Surprised by Joy. I love that title, because it reminds us that when we truly discover who God is, we don’t just find rules or religion we find joy. Sometimes it’s not that
we’ve rejected God, it’s that we’ve only known the wrong version of Him.

So today, just like C.S. Lewis, I want to invite you to open your heart and your mind for the next few minutes. Maybe your story with God has been complicated. Maybe it’s even painful. But what if, like Lewis, you could be surprised by joy again?

Because this movie, The Chronicles of Narnia, paints a beautiful picture of God’s story; one of love, purpose, and redemption. It reminds us that from the very beginning, God created us for a relationship with Him and gave us the freedom to choose. Narnia is a story about what happens when God’s perfect design gets disrupted. It starts with love and family, but it takes a turn when Edmund listens to the wrong voice and turns his back on God’s story.

As you watch this movie, I want you to notice something that’s true not only in Narnia…but in God’s story too. The enemy always tries to pull us away from God’s best by getting us to believe something that isn’t true.

Remember the Turkish delight?
Edmund thought he’d stumbled onto something sweet, something that would satisfy him, but it was all a trap. There weren’t endless rooms full of candy waiting for him. The White Witch promised him everything and then betrayed him. And that’s exactly how our enemy works.

2 Corinthians 11:14 says, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

In other words, he always dresses the lie up to look good. He whispers, “This will make you happy. This will make you feel alive.”
But it’s never the full truth.

We’ve all fallen for that at some point. Maybe some of you are caught in that right now, you’re believing a lie that something else will satisfy more than God’s plan. I know I have. There was a time I thought, “I’ll just take control of my own life. I’ll make my own way.” But it didn’t take long for things to start unraveling, because the truth is, the enemy and sin always overpromises and always underdelivers.

Jesus said in John 8:44, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

That’s who he is; he deceives, he distracts, and then he destroys. He’ll give you a morsel of truth, wrapped in a mountain of lies.

And the tragedy is this: every time we take the bait, we end up trapped like Edmund, imprisoned by something that looked good but left us empty.

What a powerful picture of what happens when we fall for temptation. Edmund was offered something sweet, but it led him straight into captivity. That’s how sin works. It looks good at first…appealing, even harmless…but in the end, it always leads to bondage and darkness. It may not happen overnight, but every time we choose our own way instead of God’s, we end up chained by the very thing we thought would set us free.

Jesus said it this way in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

That’s the enemy’s mission-he’ll bait you with pleasure, but it always comes with a price.

Adrian Rogers (well known Southern pastor) said,

“Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay.” – Adrian Rogers

That’s the truth.

C.S. Lewis illustrates it so vividly in this story because when we walk away from God’s plan, we don’t just make a bad decision…we step into enemy territory. Spiritually speaking, we become prisoners, held hostage by our own choices. And the Bible says the payment for that, what sin
costs, is death.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In other words, we all had a bill we couldn’t pay. And here’s the good news, Jesus saw it. He saw the mess, the mistakes, the sin-and instead of letting us pay for it ourselves, He stepped in and said, “I’ll take it.”

That’s what the cross was. He paid our debt with His own blood. The only thing that could cover sin was blood-and Jesus offered His. Hell isn’t a place where God sends people He’s mad at. It’s simply the place where people choose to pay their own bill. C.S Lewis famously wrote,

“The doors of hell are locked on the inside.”
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.'”
-C.S. Lewis

That’s what Hell is, eternal separation from a God who will not force His will and ways on you. Where everyone’s will is done absent from all goodness and all love.

But God never wanted that for you. That’s why Jesus came, to make a way of escape, to pay for your sin, and to set you free.

Every moment Aslan appears in this story feels sacred. He represents everything that is true about God; strong yet gentle, powerful yet loving, full of grace yet perfectly just. Aslan points us to the same God who loves humanity so deeply that He sent His Son to give His life on the cross-to pay the price for our sin. Jesus paid our debt with His own blood. It’s a truth many have heard countless times in church but haven’t fully grasped. Because if we ever truly understood what He did for us, gratitude would overwhelm us.

In this next scene, Aslan willingly gives his life for something Edmund did; he is mocked, tortured, and killed in Edmund’s place. It’s difficult to watch because it exposes both the evil of sin and the weight of our own. Yet it also reveals the greatest love the world has ever known. As we watch this next moment, let’s reflect on what Jesus did for each of us.

John 15:13 (NIV) “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

That scene is one of the most striking in the entire film. At first, it’s easy to think, “Why would Aslan do that?” Why does he have to die? After all, Edmund wasn’t exactly the most likable character. But that’s the beauty of what C.S. Lewis wanted to show that Aslan stepped in for someone who didn’t deserve it

And that’s exactly the heart of God’s story. It’s what surprised and ultimately transformed C.S. Lewis himself-that God allowed His own Son to be mistreated and to die for people who hadn’t earned it and didn’t deserve it. The truth is, none of us deserve it. Every one of us has turned our back on God in some way, and our sin was the reason Jesus had to die.

Listen to how Isaiah describes it:

But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him-our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And GOD has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off- and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.
Still, it’s what GOD had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it-life, life,
and more life.
And GOD’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

– Isaiah 53:5-10 (MSG)

There has never been, and never will be, a greater expression of love than what Jesus did on the cross. In His mercy, He stepped in and said, “I want everyone back in the family-no matter what they’ve done-even the ones like Edmund. I’ll pay the price.”

And here’s the part the enemy never saw coming-Jesus didn’t stay dead. On the third day, He rose again. Early that Easter morning, before the sun came up, Mary went to the tomb and found it empty. An angel sat on the stone and declared the good news:

Luke 24:6 – “He is not here; He has risen!”

That moment changed everything. The cross paid for sin-but the resurrection gives power to overcome it. That’s the heart of God’s story: Jesus gave His life to bring humanity back to the original plan; to restore relationships, defeat darkness, and give us victory through His resurrection.

Today we’ve seen the God story…a story of love, redemption, and a Savior who stepped in when we couldn’t save ourselves. The prayer right now is simple: that every heart would open up to God’s power and love.

You might be wondering, “What do I have to do to receive what Jesus did for me?”

John 1 says it clearly: “To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”

That’s God’s desire for you today. To bring you back into His family. If you feel far from God… if you know there’s a distance between where you are and where you want to be… maybe you’ve believed some lies, maybe you’ve carried guilt or shame, maybe you’ve just been running your
own way-it’s time to come home.

This isn’t about joining a church.
This isn’t about becoming more religious.
This is about receiving the greatest offer ever made-God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus.

Christmas Blockbusters: A Christmas Carol

At Gateway Church in Austin, we continued our Christmas Blockbusters series with The Grinch.

Movies move us…they stir our emotions, awaken our imagination, and often point us to something greater.

Digging Deeper

Work through the Bible study and the discussion questions with your small group, roommates, or family.

Digging Deeper

Message Notes:

Today we are examining the 1843 holiday classic “A Christmas Carol.”

You might have seen this movie in its many forms – from black and white films, to Muppets, and stage plays to musicals – “A Christmas Carol” has become a staple around the holiday season for over a hundred years.

And today we’re taking a look at the 2009 animated version starring Jim Carey as the miserly, penny-pinching, loveless, ungracious, uncompassionate character by the name you all know… Ebenezer Scrooge.

And his story reminds us how important our heart is – and how what’s in our hearts affects our lives.

The Bible says in Proverbs 4:23 NIV – “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

So here’s the question of the day – how’s your heart?
What’s going on in your heart?

Maybe like Scrooge your life started with such innocence, and purity and with genuine love in your heart – but then life happened – disappointment – loss – betrayal – bad decisions – maybe even tragedy – and your heart gets broken and hard. Well here’s what I want you to know – that no matter how bad it gets or how far you think you’ve gone – God sees – and God cares.

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV) says, “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

And because God sees your heart – He’ll always send a way to reach your heart – even if it means taking a look back at the past – to see clearly – how we got to where we are.

“Haunt me no longer!” – Scrooge said.

I think that’s the cry of a lot of people – haunted by the past, pains, people, and problems and wish there was anything they could do to make it all go away.

You know as we watch those moments from Scrooge’s past, we all can recall things like that in our own life. And whether good or bad – our past has shaped us into the person that we are today.

So then here’s another great question – what would it take to finally move past the past and step into the purpose and plan that God has for our lives?

And I think the way we find the answer to that question is – perspective – seeing things from a different point of view.

I mean whatever perspective you had when you came to church today – has you the way you are today.

But what if we could step out of our lives – and look down from above – at our present – the life we’re living right now – what would it reveal – and what would we change?

And I think that’s what God wants us all to do today – take inventory of our lives.

In fact – I believe that’s why you’re here today – to see your life from a different perspective.

In Ephesians chapter one, there’s a prayer – a prayer that I’ve prayed for you today – Ephesians 1:18 NIV “I pray that the eyes of your heart will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share.”

Seeing your life clearly – from God’s perspective – is a gift. And as the Ghost of Christmas present says, “Not many mortals are granted a perspective of man’s world.”

I love the moment when the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Ebenezer Scrooge to see the humble home of Bob Cratchit and his ailing son, Tiny Tim.

That scene forces Scrooge to look beyond his own world and see life through the eyes of someone who has far less, yet lives with so much more gratitude and love.

Sometimes one of the most powerful ways to see our own lives clearly is to look at the lives of others-to see how contentment, joy, and generosity can exist even in the midst of struggle.

Moments like that have a way of softening our hearts, reminding us that real wealth has nothing to do with possessions and everything to do with compassion.

That’s exactly what begins to happen to Scrooge.

His heart starts to awaken.

The walls begin to crumble.

And what these imaginary ghosts were trying to do for him is what the one True God still longs to do in us-to open our eyes, to stir our hearts, and to lead us toward a life marked by love, generosity, and grace.

King David prayed a similar prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT):

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

The truth is, one day everything about our lives-who we are, and who we could have become-will be made clear. But the beauty of God’s grace is that it’s not too late to change. Like Scrooge, we still have time to let God rewrite the story of our hearts.

Death always gives us the greatest perspective.
It reminds us that our life on earth is short.

As the book of James says it (James 4:14 NIV) “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” You know in Luke chapter 12

Jesus talked about a man who had no perspective of eternity – when the man said, (Luke 12:19-21 NIV) “I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

And that’s what Ebenezer was realizing – and it’s what we need to understand too. That it’s time to get past our past – to see the new perspective that God is giving us today – and begin a new life that ensure we have a hope and purpose for our future – a future that God always intended. My favorite line in the movie is when Ebenezer Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas yet to come, “Are these the shadows of things that will be – or shadows of things that may be?” Well I’ll let this closing scene answer that question.

“I’d love to come Christmas dinner, if you’ll have me.” – Scrooge

It’s still so surprising to me the number of people who want to come home – but don’t feel like God will love them and accept them. But the Bible clearly says that God not only will have you –He’s inviting you in. Jesus says in

Revelation 3:20 (NLT) “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”

He’s knocking – all we have to do is open the door.

Let’s pray together. Father, thank you for loving us no matter what our past is like or what our hearts are like – and Lord I ask that You would make our hearts pure and give us the perspective of our lives that is real and true – and help us to make the most of our lives knowing that our time on earth is short. (Pause)

In fact, as you’re praying today at all of our different locations – I wonder how many of you would say, I want to make the most of my life. I don’t want to see my life with the right perspective – I want a pure heart and I want to make a difference in the lives of other people. If that’s you today and you want to make a difference and show the love of God to others, would you just open your hands before the Lord and let me pray for you?

God may we see our lives and the lives of others the way You do – and today Lord – we dedicate our lives to showing your love to those around us – through our service and our generosity – God we give you our lives. And Lord thank you for the joy that comes as we live the way You always intended – in Jesus Name.

Please just continue to keep your heads bowed and eyes closed – there may be those of you who feel God knocking on your hearts door right now – He’s wanting to come in – and you’re ready to receive His love and make Him your Lord.

Maybe if you look at your life and you think about where you stand with God – you might say, I’m not really sure. I don’t have peace – my heart’s not right. I don’t know what would happen to me if my life on earth was over. Well let me tell you about the goodness of God and His love. God loves you so much that he sent his Son Jesus, perfect in every way. And who did Jesus love?

He loved people whose hearts have been broken, He loved the people who have messed up their lives. He loved people just like you and me. And I believe the very reason you’re here today is because many of you need to experience the love of God. If that’s you – you recognize that you’ve sinned – and you want to turn from that sin and turn to Jesus. The moment you ask Him to forgive you and be the Lord of your life, He’ll forgive every sin you’ve ever committed and he will make you completely new.