Public Church

There is something powerful and life-giving about bringing your questions and thoughts to discuss the words of Jesus with others. We offer Community Groups as environments to do this every week, and today, we are modeling a community group on stage. Our panel is diving into Matthew 9-12 just like they do at Community Group, and if you are interested in Community Groups, please visit our website pu...

It’s easy for us to compartmentalize Jesus, and we can put “being a Christian” in a box and step out of the box for the other parts of our lives. However, Jesus is the King who invades all of our lives. In Matthew 5-7, which functions as an inaugural address for the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus shows us what it looks like to get rid of the box.

No matter what comes to our mind when we think of a king, we are pretty much guaranteed that isn’t what Jesus had in mind when he stepped into history as the King. Jesus thwarted the expectations of those living in the first century, and he does the same for us living in the twenty-first century. How will we respond when this happens? Are we ready for the King?

Todd starts the talk by sharing that his soul is fragile and gives the context of his parent’s health struggle that Whitney and he have been walking through with his parents. Then we see that God cares about our soul as we anchor in some life-giving Scripture that points us towards a path for growing more healthy in our souls.

We all feel it. What adds pressure, stress and anxiety to you life? So what do you do with it? It is what we do with the pressure we face that crushes us and hurts those around us or keeps us moving through the world in the way we were created to be.  Join us as we explore the heart Jesus has for us when it comes to pressures we feel in our lives!

Many of us have a tendency to take people and things for granted, and this bleeds over it our faith. As we end our series diving into the crucifixion and the resurrection, we could easily think this is a talk for someone else. However, we can never mine the depths of the cross and the empty tomb. May we be blown away by Jesus’ sacrifice and victory. As we see his claims to be God, may we take the...

Jesus begins John 14 by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled,” but what do we do when our heart is troubled? The Message paraphrase says, “Don’t let this throw you,” but what about the times we’ve already been thrown on the floor? We wrestle with these questions as we are granted behind the scenes access to a dinner conversation with Jesus and his disciples where he comforts and challenges them...

What assumptions do you have about God? How do you respond when Jesus does or says something that doesn’t fit into your box of who God is? To explore Jesus’ divinity, we must also examine our definition of God. One of the most scandalous aspects of Jesus is that he was redefining God to his original audience, and if we let him, he will do that today for us.

In our culture, it’s easy for us to magnify others’ sins while ignoring our own. However, that is not that way of Jesus, especially as he demonstrates in a tension-filled, life-changing scene in John 8:1-11. Dr. Fijoy Johnson challenges us to let Jesus set us free from shame as leads us to dive into this story.

As we start a new series, we invite you to wrestle with the question, “Is Jesus really God?” In The Problem with Jesus, Mark Clark says, “The question of Christ’s divinity may be the ultimate scandal of the Christian faith.” In other words, this question is significant for all of us, whether or not we follow Jesus, so I hope you will join us for this journey.

Why is it so difficult for us to ask for help? It’s also easy for us to pursue low hanging fruit that can harm us in the long-run. Matt Moore addresses both of these today as he challenges us from God’s Word. Matt is part of our Public Church family and currently serves as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Ocoee Region Area Director.

When it comes to fasting, many of us don’t know exactly what it is or why we should do it. Rob Fultz, the Campus Pastor at Lee University, starts by debunking some commonly held myths about fasting, and then he dives into the Biblical narrative to show three essential, and often overlapping, reasons why we fast. As we begin our 21-Day Collective Fast (January 9 -29), this talk sets the tone for ou...

When the rubber meets the road, what does it look like to follow Jesus in our everyday lives? In Galatians 5:16-25, Paul paints a clear picture, with vivid illustrations, of what it a life surrendered to Jesus practically looks like as he contrasts being dominated by sin versus being led by the Holy Spirit. In response to the vision he casts, we ask, “Don’t you want this? Don’t you want this passa...

John Brose, Annette Myers, and Zach Camp are leaders in Public Church, and they sit down for a conversation with Todd Stevison about rest. We know that our lives can easily speed up to a hectic pace that cuts out or greatly decrease rest, so we hope that their experiences of trying to practice rest can inspire all of us to implement healthier rhythms in 2022.

Our personal context, the situations and circumstances in our lives, determine how we interpret the Christmas season. The same is true for the first Christmas. Therefore, we need to know the context of the first Christmas to fully grasp its immense impact. By diving into the world of Jesus’ uncle and aunt, Zechariah and Elizabeth, we see part of the original context of the first Christmas.

The birth of Jesus signified light entering the world like never before. Light exposes, but there are areas of our world where we don’t want his light to shine. The big question today: where do we NOT want Jesus to shine?

We invite all the kids to join us to read the Christmas story as part of our Christmas Spectacular gathering where we kick off December with a unique and laughter-filled celebration!

Anxiety and worry are on the rise in our world, but they were struggles in the ancient world as well. In Philippians 4:4-9, Paul gives us some ways to fight anxiety and worry because Jesus cares about our mental health. This talk does not replace counseling and other needed tools, but we hope today drives some of you to counseling as we fight anxiety and worry through all the tools Jesus gives us.

We end our series by focusing on the end of a statement in What We Believe, “We generously pour out our resources for a mission bigger than ourselves.” Seeing God’s heart for the nations fuels a “bigger than ourselves” perspectives. We hope that today inspires all of us to step into our role as global Jesus followers.

How do we fight against greed? In 1 Timothy 6, Paul lays out a clear action to fight greed and invest in eternity. Beyond Sunday represents a special way for us to invest in eternity through the God-give vision of Public Church.

If we pause to reflect, most of us realize that greed is like a gravitational force that pulls us in unless we actively release it. In 1 Timothy 6, Paul echoes this reality and goes even further by describing greed as a trap. How do we fight against it? We dive into 1 Timothy 6 and a story by Jesus as we explore this question.

Dr. Fijoy Johnson is our guest speaker, and he challenged us with this question based on Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan. By bringing us into the culture of the story, Fijoy challenges us about how and who we are loving.

If you follow Jesus, how you do view people who are considered far from God? If you don’t follow Jesus, how do you think Jesus views you? Jesus gives us a window into how he views people considered far from God in Luke 15. Jesus followers, prepare to be challenged. For those of you who don’t follow Jesus, prepare to be blown away by his love.

We are bombarded by materialism and greed, but Jesus offers an antidote. What does it look like to live a generous lifestyle? For Jesus followers, it starts with a principle. If we skip the principle, our generosity will not be sustainable.

What in your life invokes a response? Is it a beautiful sunset that reminds you that life is bigger than your problems? Cause and effect relationships are real, and we see that in worship. Worship is the effect, so what is the main cause? We dive into Nehemiah 8 to discuss this question.