Gateway Church - MO

Like most things in life, everyone’s faith has a starting point. Adult realities often challenge the faith that might have formed in childhood. Likewise, we can have experiences or meet people that reignite our curiosity in faith or ignite it for the first time. The starting point of Christian faith is not the Bible. The starting point of Christian faith is the question: “Who is Jesus?”

When Jesus said, “Go and make disciples, was literally saying, “Disciple people as you are going.” A pioneer chooses to be intentional about imitating Jesus as they go through their journey of life. It’s imitating Jesus AS WE GO that makes us pioneers

A pioneer is made (and commanded) to “Go and make disciples.” We have no other work than the work of making disciples.

We were created to re-present God to our world and to partner with him in managing creation. But we have rebelled and lost who we were supposed to be. When we are re-created into the image of Jesus and live the life we were created to live, we open the door for others to discover a life worth living.

Living a life that transforms our world and brings peace and hope to those around us is hard to do. Until we know who we are, we’ll have a hard time knowing what to do. But when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we discover who we are and what we’re supposed to do. That’s what allows us to endure the difficulty of being a pioneer for Jesus in a world that doesn’t get it.

What you naturally want is often in conflict with what you ultimately value. But your heavenly Father knows what you need. He wants for you what you really want. So, how do you put aside those natural wants and pursue what you ultimately value?

What do you want? What do you really want? We’ll never get what we really want until we discover what is most valuable. And what we naturally want is often in conflict with what we ultimately value. So, in order to figure out what you really want, you have to figure out what you value.

We’ll never get what we really want until we discover what is most valuable. But choosing what’s valuable isn’t natural. We’ve all had the experience of getting what we naturally want, only to discover it's not what is most valuable—it’s not what we ultimately want. But how do we avoid being deceived by our short-term desires?

We all have wants. But actually getting what we want can be tricky . . . and even dangerous. It usually leaves us wanting more. If what we want leads to a cycle of wanting more and more, maybe we want the wrong things. Ultimately, we’ll never get what we really want until we discover what we really value.

Not only is scripture a mirror, but we ourselves are a mirror to those around us. We are called to be "Salt and Light" to the world.