Coming to Houston
2,000 Years Later: The Dead Sea Scrolls Come to Houston
This November, you can see the roots of the Word we study every Sunday with your own eyes.
Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition opens November 20 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Hermann Park. The exhibit brings together ancient manuscripts and rare artifacts, including some of the oldest known copies of Old Testament books — discovered in caves near the Dead Sea and preserved by hand for more than two thousand years.
There’s a fitting tie to our Galatians study, too. The Scriptures Paul reached for were already treasured and copied long before his letter was penned. To stand before these scrolls is to glimpse the trustworthy roots beneath the gospel we hold today.
“The righteous shall live by faith.”
GALATIANS 3:11
Tickets and details are at hmns.org. The exhibit is on Level 3, and members get early access now.
Lesson Recap — Galatians 1:6–9
Grace Plus Nothing — and Why Paul Wouldn’t Soften It
Don Sweat brought the heat of Galatians 1:6–9 to the Foundations Class on Father’s Day, and as he reminded us, four verses can hold a lot when you slow down and look closely.
Don set the scene first. In most of his letters, Paul opens with warm thanks and praise — Don read the glowing first lines of Philippians to show the pattern. Then he turned to Galatians, where that warmth is simply gone. No commendation, no thanksgiving. Paul goes straight to the rebuke. The absence of praise, Don noted, tells you how serious things had become.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you.”
GALATIANS 1:6
The Greek made it sharper still. The word for astonished carries both astonishment and disappointment at once, and the word for quickly points to how easily and fast the Galatians were drifting — distracted, as Don put it, by the next bright shiny thing.
What had pulled them away? The Judaizers — outside agitators (Paul refers to them in the third person, a subtle clue) who wanted to trade the liberty of grace for the bondage of the law. They taught that faith in Christ wasn’t enough; you also had to keep the old requirements. Paul calls that “a different gospel” — though, as Don stressed, there is no other gospel. It isn’t a slightly different version heading the same direction; it’s 180 degrees the opposite way. That’s why Paul’s language turns so severe, right down to “let him be accursed.” The class worked through that hard phrase together and landed here: Paul isn’t personally cursing anyone — he’s declaring that those who steal God’s glory by perverting the gospel place themselves under God’s curse.
At the heart of it is one of Galatians’ great themes, which Don borrowed from Warren Wiersbe’s two-word summary of the book: Be Free. The gospel is grace through faith plus nothing. We’re saved by good works — Christ’s good works, not ours. And that freedom is liberty, not license: we’re free to obey God, never free to disobey Him.
Don closed with a vivid picture of the Christian life as a three-stage rocket. Justification is the blast-off — the moment we trust Christ alone. Sanctification is the journey — the Spirit at work in us as we leave the old life behind. And glorification is the final touchdown in God’s presence, in His timing, not ours.
His parting charge: like Paul, we’re called to be the light — speaking the truth about anything that distorts the gospel, but always graciously, lovingly, and for the sake of the lost.
★ ★ ★
This Week's Lesson · Summer Galatians Series
From Persecutor to Apostle: The Road That Made Paul
This Sunday, Bill Wright takes us off the page and onto the road — tracing the full chronology of the Apostle Paul's life from a blistering persecutor of the church to its most tireless missionary.
It's a story with more drama than most realize. A blinding light on the Damascus road. Three days without sight. An escape over the city wall, lowered in a basket to dodge a death plot. Then roughly ten quiet years in Syria and Cilicia — God calling, God preparing — before Barnabas ever brought him to Antioch and the work among the Gentiles began.
God calls. God prepares. God sends.
The Making of an Apostle
And then the moment that anchors our whole Galatians study: years later, Paul opposed even Peter to his face when Peter's hypocrisy blurred the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:11–14) — the same error troubling the Galatians, confronted head-on. Come see how God built an apostle, and why his unshakable stand still matters for us today.
Reading Assignment
Galatians 1:10–2:10
★ ★ ★
Sermon Recap — Father’s Day
Challenges & Joys: The Prodigal Son | O.S. Hawkins
On Father’s Day, guest preacher Dr. O.S. Hawkins took us into the best-known parable in Scripture — the prodigal son of Luke 15 — and then, with one quick grammar lesson, turned the whole familiar story on its head. “A man had two sons.” Who’s the subject of that sentence? Not the runaway. Not the resentful older brother. The father. This, he reminded us, was never primarily a story about a rebellious child. It’s a portrait of the heavenly Father — and of us.
From there he walked us through three pictures of that Father.
First, open hands that say I release you. When the younger son made his offensive demand, the father let him go. It was love tough enough to allow a hard road, and wise enough not to rescue him from it — “no one gave him anything” in the far country, and it was precisely that hard silence that brought the boy to himself. Dr. Hawkins paused there to clear up one of the most misunderstood words in the Bible: repentance isn’t remorse, regret, or reform. It’s a change of mind that becomes a change of will that becomes a change of action. The boy didn’t just feel sorry — he got up and went home.
Second, open arms that say I receive you. While the son was still a long way off, the father ran. He cut off the rehearsed apology and forgave before a word of it was finished. Love, Dr. Hawkins noted, doesn’t keep a ledger of wrongs suffered; it suffers long and begins again.
“You are always with me, and all that I have is yours.”
LUKE 15:31
Third, open heart that says I respect you. The father left his own party to plead with the bitter older brother, too — the son whose sin was self-pity rather than self-pleasure. To him the father held out the same grace, and three steady promises: his abiding presence (“you are always with me”), his abundant provision (“all that I have is yours”), and his achieved purpose (“your brother was lost and is found”).
Then Dr. Hawkins pointed out where the story stops. Jesus never tells us whether the older brother went in. The ending hangs open — on purpose — because the Father is asking each of us to finish it ourselves by coming home.
He closed with a tender word for anyone whose own father was absent, distant, or worse, and for whom this day is hard: God’s promise still stands. “I will be a Father to you, and you can be my child.” The arms that were open to the prodigal — never wider than when they were stretched out on the cross — are open still.
★ ★ ★
A Chance to Make an Eternal Impact
A Seat at the Campfire — Reserved by You
Every year, Family Camp gives single-parent and blended families at Houston's First something the calendar rarely allows: a weekend to exhale. Three days to step away from the daily grind, strengthen relationships, grow in faith, and discover they are not walking their road alone.
Last year, nearly 50 families gathered around the theme Endure. They heard Philip and Elizabeth Varjas share how God carried them through hardship — and you could feel the room lean in. Kids tackled the ropes course, went fishing, and braved the putt-putt. Parents finally rested over an ice cream social. By Sunday morning, families who had arrived worn down left with renewed joy, new friendships, and one anchoring truth: God's Word endures forever (Isaiah 40:8) — and through Christ, so can we.
This year, several families would love to come but can't cover the cost. And here's the part worth sitting with:
A scholarship of just $50–75 per person is often the only thing standing between a struggling family and a weekend that could change their year.
That's the whole gap. We can close it.
Would our class sponsor one or more campers? Every gift — any amount — removes a financial barrier and hands a family a weekend they'll carry home in their hearts. Your generosity can have an eternal impact.
Read last year's Family Camp recap →
★ ★ ★
Series Booklet · Read or Print
The Galatians “Set Free” Study Booklet
Can’t see it? Open or print the booklet here.
★★★
Your Turn · Share the Good News
Do You Have a Testimony? (You Do.)
Before we closed, the class was handed a simple challenge: be ready to tell your story. Every believer has one, and telling it clearly may be the most important tool we carry. As the best coaches do, we went back to basics — “Gentlemen, this is a basketball.” For us, the basics are the gospel itself: we’ve all sinned, Christ died for us, and salvation comes by trusting Him alone.
Suzanne Messersmith shared how it looks lived out. Pat, a friend of more than forty years, had lived a full and lovely life but had never met Christ — she didn’t even own a Bible. Through patient friendship, honest conversation, and one long lunch spent “marrying the need to the provision,” she came to faith. She was baptized last Sunday. As longtime soul-winner Ken Lowrimore — Lindsay Blessing’s grandfather — likes to ask: “If you died today, do you know where you would spend eternity?”
That’s our assignment this summer. New care groups of four to six are forming — not for dinners and obligations, but for simple connection: a call, a text, a word of encouragement, a prayer. Know the gospel. Know your story. And be ready to share it.
★★★
Strikes, burgers, and fellowship — roll into an evening of connection with the Encore community. Whether you bowl a perfect game or gutter every frame, the real win is the time spent together. Your ticket covers lane time and a premium Red Robin Burger Box, so come hungry and ready to laugh.
WHERE FRC Bowling Alley (Loop Campus)
TICKETS $15 per person — includes lane time + Red Robin Burger Box
Spots fill up — grab your lane before they're gone.
★★★
The Midweek Refreshment of Shared Prayer
Join our community as we pause together for the Sweet Hour of Prayer every Wednesday at noon. Please send your prayer requests to Karen at 713-204-8384 by Tuesday so they may be included.
Connecting Through Encore Activities
★★★
You're in Control — Join or Step Back Anytime
We've created a Foundations Class GroupMe message center as a convenient, real-time way to share prayer requests, announcements, and encouraging messages. Join or leave anytime — no pressure. Mute notifications if you prefer silence, or jump into the conversation when something grabs your heart.
Sign up here: https://3zs8.short.gy/FoundationsGM →
