the Cross Orlando

An Advent message on Isaiah 40:1-5, where God tells the exiled people their warfare is ended and iniquity pardoned, tracing the prophecy's three fulfillments (Cyrus, John the Baptist, and Christ's awaited return) and urging listeners to receive God's comfort and pardon now.

A guest speaker opens the Advent season on its first Sunday, themed around hope and expectant waiting, reflecting on Isaiah 64's cry for God to come down, amid the weariness of waiting through the pandemic year.

On the last Sunday of the church year, continuing the series on God moving first, this message turns to Matthew 19 and the rich young ruler who asks what good deed he must do to inherit eternal life, set against Jesus's call to receive the kingdom like a child.

Continuing the series on God moving toward us first, this message turns to Acts 9 and Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus, where Christ confronts the church's chief persecutor, showing that God's initiating grace comes by his prerogative, not ours.

Continuing the series on God moving first, this message wrestles with Matthew 26 and the woman anointing Jesus with costly perfume at Bethany ("you will always have the poor with you"), reflecting on how God consistently works through weakness rather than power.

Continuing the series on God moving toward us first, this message connects Exodus 19 (God carrying Israel on eagles' wings) with Mark 5, the intertwined healings of Jairus's daughter and the woman with the issue of blood, both of whom come to Jesus in desperation.

Beginning a series on God moving toward us first, this message returns to Exodus 3 and the burning bush, tracing how God's initiating love provided for Moses throughout his life, and reflecting that God calls us out of nothing simply because he loves us.

A guest speaker (a therapist) reflects on our culture's obsession with immediate, visible results, healing, and progress, using a personal gardening story and Kate Bowler's book "Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved" to challenge how we measure ourselves.

Drawing on Cistercian monk Thomas Keating's "The Human Condition," this message describes humanity's deep needs for security, affection, and power, and uses Matthew 16:24-26 to call hearers to lay down their self-made systems and find those needs grounded in God.

Continuing the heroes-of-the-faith series, this message pairs civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer with Zerubbabel's temple rebuilding in Zechariah 4:6 to show that being the church against overwhelming obstacles comes "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit."

Drawing on 1 John 3:11-18, which defines love as self-sacrifice modeled on the cross, this message tells the story of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was converted by the poor and martyred at the altar, as a model for being the church.

Shifting from God as shepherd to human "sub-shepherds" or role models, this message turns to 1 Kings 19 and the prophet Elijah, set against Israel's demand for kings and its drift from God, as an example of a leader worth following.

Continuing the series on God as shepherd, this message argues we judge a spiritual leader by the culture of God's reign left in their wake, and turns to Matthew 11, where the imprisoned John the Baptist sends to ask whether Jesus is the one to come.

Continuing the series on God as shepherd with Psalm 23, this message turns to John 10, where Jesus declares himself the good shepherd who came that his sheep might have life abundantly.

Continuing the series on God as shepherd, this message examines how Jewish culture distrusted actual shepherds, then turns to Luke 15 and the parable of the lost sheep, where Jesus as shepherd seeks out tax collectors and sinners.

Continuing the series on God as shepherd, this message turns to Matthew 26, the Last Supper and Jesus on the Mount of Olives foretelling that the shepherd will be struck and the sheep scattered, alongside his prediction of Peter's denial.

Beginning a series on the shepherd metaphor in scripture, this message follows Psalm 23 into Jeremiah 23, where God rebukes Israel's failed shepherd-kings for scattering his flock and promises to gather his people and raise up a faithful shepherd.

Coming out of the series on the church's culture and into an uncertain new school year amid the pandemic, this message turns to Psalm 23, the Lord as shepherd, opening with a personal memory of the psalm sung at the preacher's grandmother's funeral.

The concluding message in the series on the culture of the church, recapping the core values of the reign of God explored over prior weeks, money, economy, rest, work, justice, and love, and how they shape the church living distinctly in the world.

Continuing the series on the culture of the church, this message recaps justice under the reign of God and turns to love as the action that restores what unjust action breaks, drawing on Psalm 51, David's response after his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.

Continuing the series on the culture of the church, this message turns to justice under the reign of God, arguing it runs deeper than law and order and is grounded in humanity bearing the image of God (Imago Dei) from the creation account in Genesis 2-3.

Continuing the series on the culture of the church, this message recaps the church's values around money and rest, then turns to a theology of work, beginning in Genesis 2 where God places humanity in the garden to work it.

Continuing the series on the culture of the church, this message recaps the church's posture of generosity toward money and economy, then turns to how the people of God value rest, beginning with God modeling rest in creation.

Continuing the series on being the church in Orlando, this message explores the church's distinct culture and its relationship to money, arguing it is marked by generosity rooted in trust that God owns everything, drawing on Psalm 50 and a story about missionary Hudson Taylor.

Continuing the series through Acts, this message moves to the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7) and the persecution in Acts 8 that scatters the church through Judea and Samaria, reflecting on Jesus's reign and how the church carries the culture of God's kingdom into every place it goes.