the Cross Orlando

Continuing the series through Acts on the early church, this message returns to Acts 4:32-37, where the believers were of one heart and soul, held everything in common, and shared with the needy, considering what their unity and generosity mean for the church today.

Opening with Psalm 46 and beginning a series through Acts on the early church, this message examines Acts 2:42-47, the fellowship of believers after Pentecost who shared everything in common, and what that unrepeatable moment teaches about being the church today.

Marking Pentecost and beginning a series on what it means to be the church, this message turns to Exodus 3 and the burning bush, where God sees the affliction of his enslaved people and acts to deliver them, connecting it to the racial injustice and protests of 2020.

The concluding message in the "Poverty of Spirit" series by Johannes Metz, exploring how recognizing our human limitations becomes the doorway to encountering God, and how to respond to those decisive, awe-filled moments rather than grasping for control.

Continuing the "Poverty of Spirit" series, this message opens with Matthew 6:25-34 on anxiety and explores the "shapes" of human poverty, especially our provisional nature and lack of control over past and future, drawing also on Colossians 4.

Continuing the "Poverty of Spirit" series on Mother's Day, this message revisits the woman caught in adultery (John 8) as a model of poverty of spirit, then turns to Jesus's account of the final judgment in Matthew 25 to show how that posture works out in action.

Opening with Psalm 103 and continuing the "Poverty of Spirit" series, this message examines John 8 and the woman caught in adultery, contrasting the Pharisees' use of the law of Moses as a power scheme with Jesus's response to human frailty and limitation.

Continuing the meditation on poverty of spirit from Johannes Metz, this message centers on Philippians 2, exploring how the infinite God embraced full human frailty and limitation in Jesus, who emptied himself and took the form of a servant.

Preached in the Easter season, this message reflects on human powerlessness and poverty of spirit, drawing on the Beatitudes and Jesus's temptation in the wilderness in Matthew 4, with help from the book "Poverty of Spirit."

An Easter sermon on the empty tomb (Luke 23-24) and Romans 5, 6, and 8, proclaiming that Christ's resurrection means believers will rise too, that God moves first to reconcile us "while we were yet sinners," and that the risen Jesus gathers the reconciled into the family of God.

A Palm Sunday sermon on the triumphal entry (Luke 19), paired with Jesus' Nazareth manifesto (Luke 4), reflecting on uncontainable, genuine emotion toward Jesus and urging hearers to bring their authentic feelings, even anger, to God rather than settling into self-satisfied complacency.

A Lenten sermon on the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), preached during the early pandemic shutdown, showing how Jesus exposes the "wells" we return to for satisfaction, offers living water and salvation, and empowers her to worship in spirit and truth and become an evangelist.

A Lenten message drawing on the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17) and the widow's oil (2 Kings 4), preached as the COVID-19 pandemic began, encouraging believers to name their needs honestly and trust that God delivers tangible, even supernatural, hope in the midst of bad circumstances.

A Lenten sermon on Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19) and the parable of the minas, teaching that salvation rests on belonging and identity as a child of Abraham rather than performance, and that knowing we belong frees us to repent and live like our master.

A Lenten message on the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14), exploring Jesus' unfailing compassion, the disciples' limited compassion, and God's provision, paired with the Lord's Prayer's petition for "daily bread" to encourage reliance on God for our needs.

Opening the Lenten season, this sermon works through Romans 1-3 on sin as humanity's attempt to bear God's responsibilities, teaching that righteousness comes not by works but by faith in Jesus, and inviting the congregation to write confessions acknowledging their need for forgiveness.

A study of 1 Timothy 2, where Paul urges prayer for those in authority so believers can live peaceful, quiet lives that are godly and dignified, arguing that the "mystery of godliness" in Christ equips Christians to bear God's character and be a beacon of hope.

1 Timothy

Wrapping up the lessons-from-Christmas series with Philippians 1, where Paul writes from prison that the God who began a good work will complete it, to argue that God is committed to each believer's holiness and that trusting his commitments gives confidence and singular focus, since to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Continuing the lessons-from-Christmas series on God's commitment to Israel, using the magi and Herod in Matthew 2, the Bethlehem prophecy of Micah 4-5, and God's one-sided covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, to show that God unequivocally keeps his promises and pursues even those who feel like a lost cause.

Continuing the lessons-from-Christmas series on God's radical commitment to holiness, working through three linked stories in Luke 5, the healing and forgiving of the paralyzed man, the call of Levi the tax collector, and the new-wineskins parable, to present sin as an ontological reality and forgiveness as a complete new-creation change.

Part of a series on lessons from Christmas, opening with the Apostles' Creed and arguing from Jesus' full life story, including the calling of Matthew in Matthew 9 and his Ephraim retreat in John 11, that God is not transactional but is present in and has redeemed every stage and emotion of human life.

A post-Christmas message on God's commitment to flesh and body, using Jesus' healings in Matthew 9, Paul's teaching on the resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15, and Job 19 to affirm that the body matters and will be redeemed.

An extended-Christmas message on how the incarnation reveals God's determination never to give up on humanity, tracing the recurring call to "be fruitful and multiply" from Eden through Noah, Abraham, and the Babylonian exile despite human fear and myopia.

A third-week Advent message on joy, drawing from the raising of Lazarus in John 11 and the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 to show that because Christ rose, death is undone and believers will share joyful reunions with their people in the life to come.