Gateway Church - MO

We all give and receive gifts. Some gifts are ordinary. Others are special to us. And some gifts are actually too valuable to keep for ourselves. As counter intuitive as it seems, the only right thing to do is give them away. And no gift is more valuable than the life we have in Jesus. He gave his life for us and calls us to give our lives away so that others can experience His amazing gift as wel...

Often, it’s easier to just blend in and go with the flow. There is less stress, less drama, and less chance of being noticed. But as followers of Jesus, we are called to stand out from our world. When we stand out, we may get singled out for ridicule and harsh treatment and when that happens, it’s easy to want to change to fit in. But if we are people of conviction, we stay true to who we are in J...

Having conviction can put us into uncomfortable circumstances. When we stand for godly values in a world that either doesn't understand or doesn't like those values, we can find ourselves alone with the odds against us. But if we have the conviction to stand for God, He promises to use the stand we take to make a difference… EVEN IF He doesn't change our circumstances.

When we think of conviction, we think of standing against evil or moral corruption. For most of us, having conviction means taking a stand against something. And that is often the case.  But sometimes conviction isn't as much about standing alone as it is being willing to stand tall and let God use us where we are needed most, even if it's risky or unpopular.

If we are followers of Jesus there will be times when we must take a stand against what the world is doing, even if we are the only ones to take that stand. However, taking a stand doesn't have to mean making an enemy. It's possible to take a stand that honors God and still loves people, even the people we stand against. And when our convictions honor God and love people, we can trust that God wil...

Discontentment: Not being satisfied with what you have. There is an entire segment of our society and economy build on our discontentment. The focus of advertising is to make us discontent with what we have so we’ll buy more. But that discontentment impacts more than just our buying habits. We are a culture of people who have become discontent with just about every aspect of our lives and that dis...

We’ve all heard the expression, “you are what you eat.” What you feed your body impacts your health, your mind and even how you feel.  The same is true for our minds.  The direction of our thoughts is the direction our life will take.  When we focus on junk, it derails our relationships and robs us of our joy. When we focus on those things worth focusing on, we experience the joy of a transformed...

Fear, or at least anxiety, seems to be at epidemic levels in our society. We face fear and anxiety from politics, to health, to relationships and everything in between. Few things rob us of joy faster or more completely than anxiety. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul provides an antidote to fear and anxiety that brings us peace and joy. And when...

If you are religious or if you’ve been around religious people, then you know that religion can be exhausting. So many rules. So many things to do and other things to not do. And depending on what religious group you’re with, the list changes. But what if religion wasn’t what God is after. What if what he really wants is a relationship. While religion can drain us and rob us of joy, a real relatio...

Some people are great to be around. They add joy to our lives. But SOME people drain our joy and leave us exhausted. What do we do when “some people” make our relationships harder than they have to be? We love them like Jesus loved us. When we learn to love the “some people” in our lives the way Jesus loves us, they become real people who can be a source of real joy in our lives.

Almost everyone wants to be happy. Happiness is so important to us that we’ll spend all the time and money we have just to get it. We’ll trade cars, careers, and relationships just to be happy. The problem is that happiness comes and goes. Happiness is based on what HAPPENS. What we need is joy. Joy isn’t based on what happens, it doesn’t come and go. Even when life hurts, we can have joy. It’s ju...

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, bu...

God is good even in the bad times, remember He does not take the storm away but promises to be with us in it. He is in control of the outcome always working for His glory and our good.

Peace is something that is conspicuously absent in our society today. Whether political issues, social issues, or just in our relationships, there is a tension and a conflict that indicates peace is missing.  We want peace, but most of us assume peace is just the absence of conflict and we think we can get it by getting others to submit. But peace is so much more than just not fighting. It changes...

Usually, when we think of religion, we think of doing all the right things and NOT DOING all the wrong things. We tend to think in terms of lists of rules we have to follow. And while it’s true that as a follower of Jesus we certainly need to honor Him with our lives and avoid sin, there’s more to getting it right than just avoiding the wrong. We also need to love others the way Jesus did.

Words matter.  Words have weight.  And we have all been wounded by other people’s words.  Things they have said to us or things they have said about us have hurt us.  And when we’re wounded, we have a choice to make.  We can spread the pain, giving it back to those who have hurt us and spreading to those around us, or we can bring healing.  The words we use when we’re wounded will either bring hea...

Sometimes if feels like we are chained to our past. Old hurts, ruined relationships, doubts, fears, and uncertainty all tied to things that have been done or said to us in the past.  And when we drag our past around with us, we become angry and bitter. It keeps us from moving forward and it ties us to a time and place we don't want to be a part of anymore. So, how do we get free? We must make a ch...

What do selfies, being impatient in traffic and the inability to maintain healthy relationships all have in common? They’re all symptoms of a disease that is ripping our lives, families, and nation apart. The disease of ME. Most of our culture is self-focused, self-absorbed, and self-obsessed and the cult of self is poisoning our relationships and destroying lives. But there is an antidote. The an...

What do we do when someone has a need, and we can help meet it. Do we roll up our sleeves and dive in, or do we say we’ll pray about it and move along? The truth is most of us try to avoid the complications of other people’s messes. But Jesus showed us what compassion looks like. Compassion always moves us to act on behalf of others to meet their needs, even when it’s uncomfortable and costly.

What is love? It’s a question that has filled pages of poetry and hours of songs. But has anyone ever actually come up with the answer? The answer to that question is, ‘yes’. God, through Jesus, has displayed the beauty and power of real love. As Jesus followers, the world needs us to reveal that kind of love in all of our relationships. Real love is different and different makes a difference.

Who cares? It's a phrase we've all used thousands of times. But it also a question that our world asks. When I am alone, "who cares?" When I am hurt, "who cares?" When I have been rejected, betrayed or wronged, the natural question is "who cares?" And, when I am celebrating, "who cares?" If we are followers of Jesus, the answer to that question should be "I do!" The fact is, when others hurt we ca...

Unity. Togetherness. It’s something we all want, even need. It also seems to be the one thing most absent in our culture today. From politics to pandemics to personal identity issues to which sports team you support, our world feels very divided. Jesus’ desire for his church was that we be unified. When we choose unity over our own personal interests or even needs, it marks us as different from th...

While most of us are not influential or powerful in our world, that’s OK. God doesn’t need us to be. What he wants is for us to be fully surrendered. When I surrender all of me, the good the bad and the ugly and when I allow God to use what I have in the way he sees best, I become a powerful force for the Kingdom.

Most of the time we hate to be interrupted.  Especially when those interruption are going to cost us something.  We don’t like spending time, energy, or money on unwanted interruptions.  For most of us, interruptions are inconveniences.  But what if those interruptions were actually God at work for us and through us.  If we’ll stop seeing interruptions as inconveniences and instead see them as div...