The Source Houston

Ken is flashing money in church, but he promises to repent. He tells the story of when he first got his own money - and when he first discovered the obligation of debt. “And then I realized that money is just a thing. Sometimes we let things get bigger then they are, when most of this world is just us.” Isaiah 6:1-4, 8-11 fmhouston.com

Today’s message dives deep into the book of Isaiah, and the judgment we find there. “This idea of judgment sits awkwardly with us,” Ken admits. But judgment is about naming something that’s wrong - and if we want to see a better world, we have to name what’s wrong with this one. Isaiah 35:1-10 fmhouston.com

Ken tells a story of a Christmas party that didn’t go according to plan to remind us how we behave when things go wrong - and all the things we miss out on when we do that. Zephaniah 3:14-20 fmhouston.com

Ken talks about a Psalm commonly used at funerals, Psalm 23, and the journey a funeral takes you on - one of both morning and celebration. Funerals are not just a reflection of life passed on, it’s a reflection of the journey the people in the room are on. Psalm 23 fmhouston.com

Ken has a new hobby: plants. But he has a bad history with accidentally killing green things. He likens it to his new understanding of burnout, how burnout happens when we feel like the things we do don’t matter. But God’s message of worth to us is not that. He wants to show us that we do make a difference in this world, that our lives do matter. 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 fmhouston.com

When Ken looks at the Parable of the Talents, he thinks he lives in a world of dragons. Let him explain. Matthew 25:14-30 fmhouston.com

As Ken tells us the story of the feeding of the five thousand, he needs us to understand - there is something beyond the practical that is happening here. The work of God, is done with the power of God, in the midst of the community. Matthew 14:13-21 fmhouston.com

Amanda tells about a wedding that she went to recently that turned into quite a party. The photo she’s talking about you can see on the link below. On Communion Sunday, she offers a simple invitation: come to this ordinary table to offer your ordinary things, and watch God do something extraordinary. Aiden photo: https://shorturl.at/oISZ6 John 2:1-11 fmhouston.com

Ken confesses he has the memory of a goldfish, and is alway forgetting things, both important and unimportant. But something he saw on the roadside one day stuck with him, and put him face-to-face with the reality of this world. How many of these moments go by that don’t stick in our minds? How many things that call up big questions about our own lives just fly away? What’s the difference between...

After a week of getting to know each other, Ken dives back into exploring mission, this time by looking to creation. Who’s the richest person you have ever met? Ken tells the story about working a half-a million dollar wedding - and what he found lacking there. Romans 8:18-30 fmhouston.com

Today’s message is a new series but the same message: learning to be people of unity. As Ken moves to the book of Ephesians, he talks about the one thing the writer insists upon can make that dream possible. If we want to be people of unity, it takes the embodiment of Christ. We are people wholly reliant on the love of God to be able to do this work. No matter how much the world may separate us, G...

Today’s message comes from Acts 17, where Paul visits Athens and sees the Altar to an Unknown God. This text was always preached to Ken as a “gotcha” moment, but Ken fundamentally disagrees with that interpretation. Paul WAS the ultimate “gotcha” guy. But that’s not what he does when he sees this altar. Instead, he sees it an opportunity to make the people understand that the ultimate understandin...

We want simple stories - here’s the hero, here’s the bad guy. We simplify. Scripture does the same thing. It wants to prove something, it wants to show something. This message at the heart of today's invites people to the table. But that invitation can disrupt. It can be at odds with the world. fmhouston.com

We are called as a church to see others as our brothers and sisters. That’s not easy. God does the work. But it only comes about when we first seek after God. A lot of people feel like the church shouldn’t be involved in politics. Ken disagrees - though he warns us off some of the ways the church has been involved in power before. fmhouston.com

Ken dives into the lessons from a far-flung church in the 11th chapter of Acts. “So many times, we focus on WHAT a thing is. But every so often, we discover that there’s always a ‘why’ behind it.” If we don’t start with ‘why,’ we’re living with whatever the world throws at us. fmhouston.com

Ken’s message today is on the time, as Ken puts it, “God showed Peter a bunch of animals in a blanket.” This was a period of time where Jewish people simply didn’t spend any time with Gentiles. But in the story of Peter and Cornelius, he doesn’t just send one of these people to the other - he sends both of these people to each other. And the events from this story change the whole course of the Ch...

Ken is fully a Texan, so he starts off the sermon with a bit of a Texas quiz. Why? Because what Texas is … turns out to be a really good way to understand today’s scripture. Acts 9:1-19 fmhouston.com fmhouston.com

Ken tells the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and the ideology battle explored in the text. We want to figure life out. We want to do the right thing, but we get in our own way. Humanity always gets in its own way. The ends justifies the means always fail us. Pain always creeps in, justified by a noble purpose. But God’s will is taking hold. It is continually unfolding. Acts 8:26-40 fmh...

It’s Father’s Day, which gives Lance a chance to start off the sermon with a few dad jokes, to great appreciation from the congregation. Lance explores a conflict within the early church, and casts that same conflict forward to today’s church. We each have a calling from God, and it’s important for each of us to live that calling. That’s the only way the church will grow. Acts 6:1-7 fmhouston.com

When the disciples are dragged before the Sanhedrin, it was a battle between two groups absolutely convinced that they were right. But what the members of the Sanhedrin’s ego wouldn’t let them see was that the disciples were offering was something unbelievably important to our faith: an experience with the living God. Acts 5:12-42 fmhouston.com

Ken looks at the early part of Acts, where Peter and John were imprisoned and put them in front of the Council for healing a crippled man. And we find ourselves at a battle of competing purposes at the very beginnings of the church. Acts 4 fmhouston.com

Ken knows that everywhere we look, things are a mess. But more exhausting than that are the people who stand nearby and pretend they have all the answers. But Peter doesn’t do that. He doesn’t set himself apart. He focuses instead on the prophesy from Joel that proclaimed this day: this is God’s promise to pour out his Spirit on ALL PEOPLE. The message of Pentecost is that we have all been shared...

Ken doesn’t like dramas on TV - he thinks he could do it. Because it’s just imagining the worst possible thing that could happen in a situation - which is just what happens to the Israelites in the Book of Judges. The Book of Judges describes the chipping away of a whole people, as they get further from God’s will. And we know that’s what it says in the Book of Judges, because that’s what it says...

On Mother’s Day, Lance reminds us of the difference the service we do in our homes matters. As we look into the life of Joshua, Lance hones in on something theologians say is the single most important way of defining the God of the Old Testament. Joshua 24 fmhouston.com