Faith Fellowship Church Fort Bend: Recent Episodes
Faith Fellowship Church Fort Bend
Faith Fellowship Church Fort Bend is all about making disciples who love God, love each other and love our world.
The beginning of the book of Judges is almost like walking through a museum exhibit. We see Israel's victories and defeats as well as their courage and cowardice. Within this ancient exhibit however is a challenge for us in our modern world: will we drive out the dangerous idols that lurk in the shadows of our own heart?
The book of Judges is messy. It can be bloody. It can be disturbing. And it can be complicated for our modern minds to understand. However, this ancient book can also give us a tremendous amount of wisdom and insight if we take the time to look. This week, we begin our study in Judges by overviewing what the message of the book is for us today.
The conclusion of the book of Joshua calls us to make a choice. Will we serve the idols that lurk around us, promising fulfillment but delivering death? Or will we serve the true God of life? This week, to walk us up to the book of Judges, Student Pastor David Guess takes us through Joshua 24.
As we finish walking through the book of Colossians, the big reveal is that Paul is actually waiting in prison as he writes this letter and in so doing he shows us the secret to waiting in hard places. We do not need better techniques or a better work ethic; what we need is a bigger God. What we need is to once and for all see Jesus for who He is - the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of the Universe.
When we truly see Jesus for who He is, everything changes and no part of our lives is left untouched. Because we have experienced the greatness and Gospel of Jesus, the Overview Effect as we have been calling it, everything that we say and do is done first and foremost in His name. In Colossians 3:18-21, we see that this includes our relationships with our spouses, kids, and parents.
Experiencing the overwhelming glory, greatness, and gospel of Jesus changes everything. There is not one square inch in the universe and in our lives that He does not emphatically declare, "Mine." Once we experience this type of Overview Effect, Colossians 3:22-4:2 tells us that the way we approach and do our work is completely transformed.
The church is God's demonstration community on earth displaying His love, grace, mercy holiness, and justice among His other attributes. This week, Youth Minister David Guess takes us through Colossians 3:12-17, practically showing us what God's ideal for church life looks like.
Spiritual growth does not entail earning, but it does require effort. This week, Rob Watt of Mars Hill Ministries takes us through Colossians 3:1-11 where the apostle Paul teaches how to grow in our faith by putting down, mortifying, killing the sin in our lives. As the Puritan John Owen once wrote, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you."
From their humble beginnings in the early church, deacons in the church have had been guardians of church unity and problem solvers. This week, we look at Acts 6 and consider who deacons are, what they should be doing and why we should all have the heartbeat of deacons even if we don't hold the official office.
One of the most insidious things about idols is that they can take the form of anything - including religious practices. In the church at Colossae, there were those teaching things that amounted to shadows all the while the actual substance, the real thing, was available. We wouldn't seek shadows over substance would we? Spoiler: we would and we do but Jesus offers a better way.
Alligator Snapping Turtles are sneaky little creatures. With a tongue that looks like a worm, they lure fish into what they think is a tasty meal. That is, until the razor sharp jaws shut after the unsuspecting fish has found its way into the mouth of the turtle. In a lot of ways, this is how idols function. They promise a tasty worm but deliver empty deceit. Thankfully however, Jesus provides a way out toward real happiness and significance.
How do we press on when things get tough? How do we continue to hope in the Gospel even through suffering? We can when we have seen the rabbit, so to speak. This week, we look at three "rabbit sightings" that serve as fuel and fire for the apostle Paul himself.
The crux of the book of Colossians is the notion that Jesus Christ is God Himself, having all power, authority, compassion and mercy. This week, we get to this view of who Jesus is that leads to the Overview Effect. Nothing else can be the same after this, not the least of which being how we steward our time, talents and treasures that God has given to us for His Kingdom.
As we begin the book of Colossians, in the first few verses we see a case study of what it looks like when the Gospel comes to a place and begins to take root and bear fruit. Looking at the story of the church of Colossae is helpful because by examining Colossians 1:1-14, we can take an inventory of our own lives and church to see if the Gospel has come to us as well.
The book of Colossians allows us to experience the Overview Effect. It is a book that when we understand how it flows and what God is telling us through it, our perspective on reality is dramatically changed. This week, we begin our series by doing an overview, so to speak, through the book of Colossians and outlining where we're going for the next few months. For the rest of the Fall we’re simple but challenging question: Will you enter in and explore the book of Colossians and dare to experience the revolutionary power of the Overview Effect?
Imagine a sunken treasure ship. Jesus has given us the Lord's Prayer to take us from the surface of the sea to the riches found below. When we follow His process, we find all the resources and answers to our problems. This week, we explore how asking for and giving forgiveness makes us both continually aware of the condition of our own hearts and gives us the pathway to walk in freedom.
What are we really praying when we pray the words, "Your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?" Everybody has an idea of what their ideal kingdom looks and feels like on earth. However, when we examine what Scripture tells us about God's Kingdom, we see that we are praying specifically for God's presence to be felt, God's people to be increased, and God's purposes to be submitted to.
In the first line of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches us that understanding our relationship with our Father is the first step in learning to pray. As we continue into Matthew 6, we explore how prayer is first about our relationship with God before it is about our requests from God.
Prayer is the most important yet at the same time most difficult of the spiritual disciplines. So much is misunderstood about prayer which is why we are opening up Matthew 6 and exploring how Jesus teaches us to pray (and not to pray). This week, we consider who it is we are praying to and its deep implications that adoption into God's family has for our lives.
Christian fasting is a normal, voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. It might be one of the most misunderstood and avoided of the spiritual disciplines and yet at the same time it might be one of the most potent and life-changing. This week, we examine Matthew 6 and 9 to explore Jesus' teaching on why we fast, how we fast and what it is that fasting accomplishes in us.
Eating can be a spiritual discipline? Apparently so! This week, we are in Leviticus 23, exploring how the feasting grows us spiritually in two distinct ways. Feasting slows us down and leads us to joy and gratitude. Also, feasting stirs our memory and reminds us that we are a part of something far bigger than ourselves. Grab a spoon and let's get to eating!
The spiritual discipline of stewardship serves as both an air tank that takes us deeper in our faith as well as a depth finder that shows us how deep our faith truly is. This week, we explore 2 Corinthians 9 and see what giving is really about as well as how God uses our stewardship toward money to mature our faith.
Silence and solitude is the keystone spiritual discipline in that its practice makes possible the other spiritual disciplines in our lives. This week, we explore Mark 1:35-39 and see Jesus' personal example for the benefits and practice of this crucial spiritual discipline.
Of all the spiritual disciplines, meditation might sound the most mystical to our ears. Common and popular ideas aside though, Biblical meditation is a practice that is both commanded and modeled in Scripture as the pathway to the good life. This week, we explore Psalm 1 to see what meditation is as well as some of its incredible benefits to our lives.
As believers, Jesus has called us out into the deeper waters. He calls us to move beyond superficial, surface living and to dive into the depths and explore the inner caverns and hidden wonders of the spiritual realm. This week, we explore Ephesians 3:14-21 to discover what life is like in the deep and consider what sort of re-enchantment is is needed in our reality to actually experience the possible that God calls us to.
In the back half of the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul shows us that the home is the primary place where God works out our spiritual growth. That is because He designed the roles in the home with the purpose of spiritual formation in mind and because the home is one of the only places where relationships are pressure-packed and hot enough for God to hammer us into the shape He desires for us to become.
In Luke 14, Jesus gives an astonishing, if not impossible, teaching about how His disciples should be living a life engaged in hospitality. What we find in this chapter however, is that this call to radical, countercultural hospitality is simply too great if we do not first reframe how we think about eternity, our possessions and our salvation itself.
We begin our Faith at Home series by exploring the pattern of next generation discipleship in the home that God has laid out in Deuteronomy 6. How does God see children? What are we to teach them? How are we to teach them? These are the questions that Deuteronomy 6 helps us answer.
Martin Heidegger famously said that humans are fugitives from the fact of their own mortality. We try to forget that death is coming for us. We try to cover it up. We try to not think about it. And yet, in 1 Corinthians 15:12-33, we find Paul explaining that in order to truly live, we must face the reality of our own inevitable death. As uncomfortable and as hard as it may be, Scripture would have us wrestle with the reality of death because that is the way that we truly love, value and anticipate our resurrection that is coming.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the foundational issue of the Christian faith. If it did not happen, Christianity is just a house of cards. However, if it did happen then the implications and consequences for our lives are nothing less than life-altering. This week, we consider the evidence in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 and see for ourselves if the resurrection of Jesus is plausible and what it might mean for us today.
We end our series in the book of Titus by exploring Titus 3 and seeing what it looks like to be a healthy and faithful church in a society that increasingly thinks Christianity is extreme and irrelevant. And yet, even though society and culture change, the Gospel story in which we live remains the same.
This week we explore Titus 3:1-2 where the apostle Paul addresses how a healthy and faithful church should interact with the rulers and authorities in civil government. A variety of perspectives exist within the Christian community when it comes to political power, political issues and political involvement. So how does Scripture inform our understanding as citizens of both a sovereign country and an eternal Kingdom?
Does the Bible condone slavery? This is a common accusation from many New Atheists as well as others who take issue with Scripture. Growing Christians will experience doubts about faith. However, truth can be found. When you face your doubts head on and your honest about them, God can use that journey to do things in your life you never thought were possible.
This week, we continue into Titus 2:4-11 and explore what life looks like for young women and young men in faithful and healthy church. Faithfulness, self-control and submission may not the most popular topics in our world and yet what we see in these verses is that those who's roots are deep in the Gospel produce fruit like this that is actually quite beautiful.
In Titus 2:1-10, Paul takes on the role of coach in order to help the church go in the same direction, encourage them stay in the game, and instruct them on how to play their positions. This week, we looked at how to play the older men and older women position in the church, exploring how we must be ferociously multigenerational in order to be a healthy and faithful church.
Leadership in the church comes in a variety of flavors: elders, pastors, deacons, trustees, ministry directors, and the list goes on. The names may be unique in different contexts but what we learn from Titus 1:5-9 is that a plurality of qualified leaders in the local church is the first step in building a healthy and faithful church in a hostile and difficult environment.
As we begin our study of the book of Titus, we consider the broad themes of this playbook for how to be a faithful and healthy church. In a world that supremely values the new and innovative, the old and faithful instructions for the church found in this little book just might be what we need most right now.
What is in a name? According to Romeo and Juliet not much. However, what we find in Matthew 1:18-25 is that the name that God's Son would be called is "Immanuel." What we find in the name Immanuel is an infinite amount of resources for us both for now and for eternity.
The name of Jesus is certainly one of the most recognizable names in history. However, Christians believe that there is something infinitely more found in that name. In the name of Jesus we find the power to actually follow Jesus because in it is found all the blessings of salvation as well as an eternal perspective that will see you through any trial you might face.
As we begin our observance of Advent this season, we look into Isaiah 9:1-7 and step into the shoes of ancient Israel, trying to imagine what it would have been like to wait on the promise of a Rescuer. Many of us too find ourselves waiting for events in our world and our lives to turn from dark to light as we eagerly anticipate the coming of the Rescuer again.
As we conclude our series in the life of Joseph, we consider what it means that God is working all things for good. Sometimes we can see what God is doing and sometimes we can't. This week, we explore the final verses of Genesis 50 and consider God's character and promise to us.
There is so much that we can learn from the life of Joseph. Perhaps the most important however is that Joseph is a foreshadow of another Savior who would save His people and forgive His brothers. This week, we explore Genesis 50 and the final interaction between Joseph and his brothers as we see that for believers, forgiveness has been given and must be accepted.
Who is the Holy Spirit and what does He do? Why is He so important? Today, we're looking at 1 John 5:1-12 and exploring the fact that He is a person, He is God, and He illuminates Jesus and points us to worship Him.
We are taking part in the invasion of God's love into the world. Today, we explore 1 John 4:7-21 as the apostle John explains what the love of God as well as where it is now. It is abiding in us as Christians like a little annex of God’s growing empire on earth.
One of the biggest accusations against Christianity is that it is exclusive. Actually, religion and all philosophical systems are by nature exclusive. However, as 1 John 4:1-12 demonstrates, Christianity is actually the most inclusive exclusivity there is, offering more hope and resources than you can imagine.
Because Jesus loved us by laying down His life in our place, our response to His costly gift should be to love each other as we have been loved. This kind of observable, living love was what Francis Schaeffer called our final apologetic and it is the kind of love we are called to in 1 John 3:11-24.
Yes, peace on earth and goodwill to men. But in 1 John 3:1-10 however, what we see is that Christmas is about destruction. Christmas is about a landed invasion; it's about Jesus coming to destroy the works of the devil and freeing us from tyranny.
Jesus tells us to love one another. Is this a matter of simply choosing to love or are we being propelled to love? This week, we look 1 John 2:7-11 and see how confidence in our salvation comes when our life is marked by a love for others in response to Christ's love for us.
In 1 John 2:18-27 we see that when someone becomes a Christian, they are anointed with the Holy Spirit too. All the power and working of the Holy Spirit to illuminate both Jesus and God's Word in the life of the believer is available the moment a person puts their faith in Jesus.
What does it mean to love the world and the things in the world? Does it mean behaving a certain way or does it sound to you like an outdated question that the world has outgrown? This week, we open up to 1 John 2:15-17 and look at what it means to not love the world and why loving the world will lead to frustration and heartache.
How do you know that you're experience with God is genuine? John tells us that one of the ways we can know is if we are keeping His commandments. But in 1 John 2:3-6, what is very clear is that our ability to keep commandments comes from abiding in what was done on the cross…
How can you know that the Gospel is true and that you're experience with God is genuine? This week we look at 1 John 1:8-2:2 to and see how Jesus is our Propitiation and our Advocate and how these deep theological truths can give us an incredible assurance of our salvation.
As we look into 1 John 1:5-8, the big takeaway is that knowing God's character leads to growing your confidence. Check out this blog post on our website that will give you some next step ideas and resources to further grow in your knowledge of God's character!
This week, we begin our study in 1 John 1:1-4. Assurance in the Gospel is like oxygen -- we need it all the time. Have you ever choked or have been unable to breathe? When that happens, you become aware of the oxygen that you always need. Similarly, confident assurance in the Gospel is something we always need, but in times of chaos and confusion like these, we become aware of our need for it.
What could God be teaching His people in the midst of disaster? Today, we examine how they could be a call to repent and realign our complete trust with Christ. They could also be warnings to deal with unresolved conflict before it's too late.
Today, we finish the book of Obadiah and explore the Day of the Lord, a time when God reveals his sovereignty and brings His justice over human power and human existence.
Risk is an action that exposes you to the possibility of loss or injury. Why risk is important? Why is risk important for us as individuals? Why is risk important for us as a church? Essentially, the Christian life is a call to risk. This week, we explore what we can learn from the risks that Ruth took.
Governments have power and authority because it is given from God who has ultimate power and authority. This was true of Pharaoh in Genesis 41 and its true today as we enter into this election season. No matter who is on the throne, our God is in control over government and those in political power.
All of us in some way or another have some dysfunction in our family. That’s why we’re in Genesis 45 to explore Joseph's reunion with his brothers and to see that when it looks like there’s no hope, when it looks like there’s no fixing the situation, when it looks like things are totally chaotic and out of control in your family, our God is in control and He is working through it for His glory and for your ultimate good.
Sam Waltman, the Executive Director of the San Felipe Baptist Association, walks us through John 6 and the comfort we have in the person and work of Christ when walking through life's storms.
In His Providence, God was upholding, guiding and directing every piece of Joseph's career in Egypt. This week in Psalm 127, we consider how God is in control of all our work and assignments and what that means for our confidence and trust in His plans.
Waiting is the worst. Nobody likes to wait. Waiting makes you feel frustrated, helpless and completely out of control. And yet prolonged waiting is a normal part of the Christian life that God will use to form and mature you into the person He wants you to become.
Probably every single day, you are experiencing anxiety in some form. On one hand, these emotions show you what it is that you value most in the world. On the other, they provide an opportunity to trust God and His Word deeper and toward the path of contentment.
In this last session of Unity and Diversity, we listen to the experience and wisdom of a multi-generational, multi-ethnic panel. Unity in diversity begins and continues with our willingness to listen and believe each other. Joining us for the panel are:
Jackie Hing: Associate Director of Counseling Services at Rice University
Mark Barrett: Teacher and Coach at Stephen F. Austin High School
Michael Haywood: Children’s Pastor at the Fort Bend Church
Terrance Samuels: CEO of the Excel Leader Group
Lauren Tsao: Graduate of Baylor Health and Behavioral Science
Life is full of successes and setbacks. Successes we probably get. But how do we handle setbacks? This week we explore the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife and see how God can use setbacks to reveal to us where our trust really is...
What do we do when we get news that turns our world upside down? How do we process things that happen that cut us to the core? When God doesn't make sense to us, how do we make sense of life? These are the questions we consider as we begin our exploration of the life of Joseph in Genesis 37.
As we finish the book of Ruth, we see that God Himself has been the invisible hand behind everything that has happened. Interestingly in this story, what God has worked through are the simple prayers of ordinary people.
What do we do when frustrations, misunderstandings, and offenses threaten the unity of our church? In this session, we examine Acts 6 and how the apostles worked through a culturally-loaded issue to protect and maintain unity in the diversity of the church.
Naomi’s story shows us that the deepest awareness we should have of ourself is that we are deeply loved by Jesus and we have done nothing to earn it or deserve it. This is where hope is found -- in realizing grace.
As with diversity, God has plans for similarity within His church. So along with diversity, we explore the value of similarity because we all that God has built into His church. Ultimately, similarity is important because God uses it to help us follow Christ.
Providence is God's work to uphold, guide and care for His Creation. This week, we look at Ruth 2 and examine how the Providence of God worked in Ruth's life and then what it means for Providence to work in our own.
In this third class, we look at how the Image of God and its vast implications is our primary and lasting motivation to love those who are different from us. Further, it is understanding and believing this crucial doctrine that will give us the fuel for the fire that is unity and diversity within the local church.
The book of Ruth is a book that invites us to consider how God is involved in the joys and hardships of everyday life. The book shows us how God weaves together the faithfulness of His people to bring about redemption and freedom so that even in the darkest of places, there is always hope.
Ephesians 2 shows us that unity and diversity is not about what we need to do but rather about what God has already done. We have a responsibility, but success ultimately comes when we join in God’s work.
For this first class, we ask does unity and diversity in the local church matter to God? We'll look at the storyline of unity and diversity in the Bible and discuss why these things are so important to who we are what we do. You can download the class notes and slides on the core classes page on our website!