First Pres Orlando Sermons

Dr. Jack Peebles | Leviticus 19:1-5, 9-10; 20:7-8 Four times within Leviticus, God offers this command: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Holiness is a condition of our hearts created by God, and a way of behaving lived by us. Born out of our relationship with God, it works from the inside out. Leviticus 19 and 20 cover the ways in which holiness is ordered and lived out in relation...

Dr. David Swanson | Lev 18:1-5, 24-30 Of all the chapters in the Bible, this one may be the most specific on prohibitions regarding our sexuality. God has given us a great gift, and it is to be honored and protected, used as prescribed. In that way, God is honored, which is our purpose.

Dr. David Swanson | Lev 17:1-11 God calls us to a life of worship for very particular reasons, including by the "blood."

Bret Allen | Lev 16:6-10, 20-22 God's desire for us is to be in His presence. But to be in the presence of a Holy God there must be atonement for sin. It's God's great love for us and desire to be present with us and in relationship with us that motivates the Day of Atonement and ultimately the cross of Jesus Christ. Oh, the love of God!!

Rev. Tanner Fox | Lev 13:1-3, 45-46, 15:1-2 & 19 Leviticus 13-15 continues to reveal the nature of the clean and unclean laws, which speak to the larger message of Leviticus. There is a dichotomy present between life and death. God, in His holiness, assumes the position of life, and yet sin, in its pervasiveness, brings about death. In this chapter, we see the effects of sin beyond our moral c...

Dr. Paul Gibson | Leviticus 12:1-8 From this chapter, we could easily assume God is anti-childbirth or anti-women, but we know from the Biblical witness those are false. We celebrate children even as we separate our children from other religions, doing what we must as parents to keep our family in the Lord.

Dr. David Swanson | Lev 11:1-4, 9-10, 43-45 The food laws outlined in Leviticus may seem arbitrary, at best, and a bit confusing, but they are not actually all about food. Food is a way that God sets his people apart – in obedience and faithfulness to His commands.

Dr. David Swanson | Lev 10:1-3 Truth be told, personal holiness is not cool. We're made fun of for seeking moral purity before the Lord. We are labeled as being "no fun." Thankfully, Lev 10 shows us the value and wonder of God's holiness and our pursuit of the same.

Dr. Jack Peebles | Leviticus 6:8-13 We revisit the offerings this week, with a particular emphasis on spiritual leadership among God’s people. The priests are given special instructions in chapters six and seven, and that is prefaced with a repeated command found within the instructions on the burnt offering: “The fire must be kept burning…” Fire represented and reminded the Israelites of God’s pe...

Dr. David Swanson | Leviticus 5:14-19 Guilt is something we all struggle with, continually beating ourselves up over failures and mistakes. The good news is that God helps us understand why we feel guilty and offers a plan to remove it.

Tanner Fox | Leviticus 3:1-5 The book of Leviticus is full of rituals, offerings, details, death, and a big idea - holiness - that can leave us feeling like we have jumped in over our heads. But the undercurrent to the whole book, and not just this book but the Bible, is the longing for God to enjoy a relationship with the only part of creation fashioned in his image. “God is opening a way for hum...

Alexa Rossi | Leviticus 2:1-16 Because our sin has been atoned for through the burnt offering of Leviticus 1, we are invited to worship the Lord through the grain offering, which is a tribute offering of praise and gratitude. This offering is a fragrance pleasing to the Lord. Today, we bring fragrant offerings before the Lord not only through our prayers and praises, but in our love of neighbor.

Dr. David Swanson | Leviticus 1:1-9 When reading Leviticus, it is easy to get lost and bored in the details without realizing the purpose behind them. In Chapter 1, God invites His people to come, but they need to get cleaned up beforehand. We need "atonement" and this becomes the foreshadowing of the atoning work of Jesus.

Dr. Case Thorp | Acts 2:1-14, 37-39 The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is God and plays an indispensable role in God's mission of redemption and restoration. I will reflect on Trinitarian theology and the person of the Holy Spirit, and then his role in our salvation. Focus in v. 39

Dr. David Swanson | Psalm 136:1-3 When we encounter various trials, we sometimes doubt God's goodness, and the phrase we often hear: "God is good, all the time!" makes us internally wonder, "Is He?" Psalm 136 helps us answer that question with a better understanding of what "goodness" actually means.

Rev. Tanner Fox | Ezekiel 36:24-28 As we think about Mother's and the nurture they bring us – the emotional connections we have, that can often be something lost in faith. We become detached, cynical and lack any sense of real love for the Father. Contrary to 1 Peter 1:8.

Dr. Paul Gibson | Philippians 4:6-8 Research and simple observation tell us that we live in an age of increased anxiety. More directly, our own experiences show us that anxiety is not an abstract idea, but something that many of us wrestle with on a daily basis. For a few of us, anxiety is a debilitating struggle. Is an answer for our anxious struggle found in the providence of God? Is the “peace...

Continuing in a post-Easter vein, this is the moment of Jesus' transfiguration – a high point for Peter James and John, a high like Easter... but we do not live there. Maturity is coming down off the mountain and living faithfully in the mess.

Isaiah addresses the idea of "renown" or fame. We tend to want our own, as did Judah, but Isaiah says we are only to seek the renown of the Lord.

The Resurrection of Jesus reveals a power that is beyond our wildest imaginations. It is a power that redeems the world and transforms our relationship with the triune God. It's a power that creates and brings about new life. It is also a power that is evident and accessible to us even today. In Ephesians, Paul expresses his desire that the Church tap into this power - The Holy Spirit - and t...

Unlike most graves, especially the graves of heroic religious leaders (contemplation, reflection, peace), the grave of Jesus was one of such utter shock and surprise that people ran away in fear. This is the surprising, earth-shattering nature of Easter that we must rescue from the watered-down, simplified and symbolic stories told about it today.

The end of the discourse reveals the stunning prayer of Jesus for His disciples – and that includes us – His Church. The prayer of Jesus is tender and powerful and securing as we reflect on its contents.

We come to understand the heart of Jesus more deeply by listening to the conversation He has with His Father.

The disciples are confused. Jesus tells them he will be going to see the Father "in a little while." They don't know he is going to die but he goes on to tell them how it's going to work. There will be great sadness, sorry, and maybe even hopelessness. But the pain and sorrow of loss will give birth to the hope that will fill them with a joy that cannot be taken away. He uses t...

No doubt, Jesus blows the minds of the disciples with all that he is telling them. However, he is kind to them in that he explains WHY he has told them and why he is leaving.