This sermon marks the beginning of a new series, and also the beginning of a stewardship campaign. This month - and this year - we learn how to be "one together."

That requires us to bear with each other in love, but that is the work of our life, and of the church. And that is what the world is longing for.

Ephesians 4:1-7 & 4:11-13

fmhouston.com

Lance finds the culmination of all these stories of encounters in Jesus’ meeting with Zaccheus.

Don’t underestimate the way people’s lives can be transformed at a table together.

We have walked through a number of stories throughout the “Encounters” series, but Lance sees the culmination of most of these stories in Jesus’ meeting with Zaccheus. It’s the story that shows us Jesus’s plan to seek and to save the lost.

Lance talks about the anti-gravitational principle when it comes to following Christ: the one who is brought low will be lifted up.

Lance tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, and the things that Jesus called him to. And to tell that story, he illustrates it with a very country story about fishing back home.

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

Luke 5:17-26

As we explore this passage in Luke, we get to the heart of this series: a life Christ-centered is one that consistently stays focused on Him.

John 15:1-17

fmhouston.com

fmhouston.com

Lance tells the story of Mark 4:35-41 - where the disciples battle a storm while Jesus sleeps in the back of the boat.

He reminds us that often we, like the disciples, end up shouting at God, "don't you care?"

But Lance has seen God's hand, in each place that his journey has taken him, and he knows that no matter where it is that he travels to, he has Jesus in the boat with him.

fmhouston.com

Amanda steps up to the pulpit to return our focus to The Main Thing: living and loving like Jesus did.

fmhouston.com

fmhouston.com