the Cross Orlando is a congregation of people living under the reign of God — gathering weekly, working across our city, and caring for one another.
Reading the feed…
Opening a four-week series on the multi-site network's core values, this message takes up 'adventurous' through Hebrews 11 — the Hall of Faith, where at least half the examples are people who died without receiving what they were promised. Faith persists because the God of Abraham is broader and deeper than the grave, as the cross and resurrection show, and that conviction frees a church to take risks in loving its neighbors.
A guest speaker works through Isaiah 5's song of the vineyard: God created, cultivated, and protected Israel as a vineyard meant to bear good fruit, yet it yielded rotten fruit — he looked for justice but saw bloodshed, for righteousness but heard cries of distress. Drawing on Micah 6:8 and John 15, it frames righteousness as right relationship with God that flows outward into justice, and Jesus as the true vine we are grafted into.
Opening a series on the church shared with two sister congregations in Lake Mary and Sanford, this message works through Paul's body analogy in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, teaching that the church is a cohesive unit of distinct members with reciprocal need: you both belong and are needed.
Closing out the series in 2 Peter, this message works through chapter 3 and its answer to the scoffers who ask where the promise of Christ's coming has gone: God's delay is patience, not forgetfulness. Drawing on Isaiah 40-43 and Romans 2:4, it calls the church to wait for the new heavens and new earth with diligent, peaceful lives and hearts of repentance.
Continuing through Peter's second letter, chapter 2 catalogs the moments God has separated people out — the angels, Noah's generation, Sodom and Gomorrah — and warns of false prophets who play on our passions and promise a freedom that turns out to be bondage. The hinge is verse 9: the Lord knows how to rescue, and the freedom Christ calls us into is liberation rather than rule-keeping.
Opening a three-week look at Peter's second letter, this message walks through chapter 1: God's divine power has already granted everything needed for life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ. Peter's list of virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, and brotherly affection is not a to-do list but a set of dummy lights signaling where we have forgotten what is already true.
The final message in the series on vocation looks at civic and neighborhood calling through the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25), urging us to get in the game with the gifts and resources God has entrusted to us, followed by a conversation with Paul about his work in commercial real estate and his involvement with the Coalition for the Homeless.
Continuing the series on vocation, this message turns to the second arena—church—working through 1 Peter 2, where Peter urges believers to put away malice and slander and be built together as living stones into a spiritual house, a sanctuary founded on Christ the cornerstone, justice, and righteousness. It closes with a conversation with Brandi-Michelle Rhodes on belonging and what members of a church owe one another.
Continuing our series on vocation, we turn to Luke 3 — where John the Baptist tells the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers to do their everyday jobs justly rather than abandon them — and see how working fairly and well honors the image of God in the people our work touches. Ben is then joined by urban planner Eliza, who shares how her faith shapes the way she designs more walkable, neighborly communities.
Wrapping up family and turning to the church arena of vocation, this message focuses on the Great Commission in Matthew 28, where the risen Jesus meets his disciples on a hill in Galilee and sends them to make disciples of all nations.
Continuing the vocation series on family, this message turns to John 19 and the crucifixion scene, where Jesus, seeing his mother Mary and the disciple he loved standing by the cross, entrusts them to one another's care.
Revisiting the three arenas of vocation (family, church, and neighborhood), this message focuses on family through Psalm 68, where God is father to the fatherless and sets the lonely in families, and includes Amy sharing her own story about family.
Concluding the three arenas of vocation, this message turns to neighborhood, examining the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and the lawyer's question about how to inherit eternal life and who counts as one's neighbor.
Continuing the series on vocation, this Pentecost message turns to church as the second arena of vocation, focusing on Acts 1 and Jesus' ascension and promise of the Holy Spirit, sending his followers to be witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
Continuing the series on how to live in light of Scripture, this message introduces the idea of vocation, the three arenas (family, church, and neighborhood) in which people collaborate with God, and focuses on family, reflecting on the weighty, imperfect human work of raising children.
Having finished the chronological journey through Scripture, this message begins a new series on who we ought to be in light of that story, opening with Psalm 8 and its wonder that the God who made the cosmos is mindful of humanity and crowns people with glory and dominion.
The final week of the chronological Bible series reaches Revelation, focusing on John the disciple's vision in Revelation 21 of a new heaven and new earth and the new Jerusalem, where God dwells with his people and wipes away every tear, with background on John's life and authorship.
The penultimate week of the chronological Bible series follows Paul to the end of his life in Acts 28, under house arrest in Rome, where he gathers the local Jewish leaders and testifies to the kingdom of God and Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets.
Nearing the end of the chronological Bible series, this message moves into Paul's letters, focusing on 1 Corinthians 15 and his teaching on the resurrection body and victory over death, dwelling on his call to be steadfast and immovable, knowing labor in the Lord is not in vain.
After Easter, the chronological Bible series continues into the book of Acts, focusing on Acts 11 and how the early Jerusalem church, which had held everything in common, was scattered by the persecution that began with the stoning of Stephen, spreading the gospel as far as Antioch.
This Easter message, timed to land on the resurrection chapter of the chronological Bible series, focuses on Matthew 28 and the women coming to the tomb, recounting the details of Jesus' crucifixion and burial and inviting hearers to receive the resurrection as good news.
As the chronological Bible series approaches Easter, this Palm Sunday message focuses on Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Luke 19, where he accepts the crowd's praise and declares that even the stones would cry out, reflecting on the fickleness of the hearts that cheer him and soon abandon him.
Building toward Easter in the chronological Bible series, this message examines the teachings of Jesus through the three parables of Luke 15 (the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son), emphasizing that Jesus taught in parables to drive people to action and a way of living rather than mere belief.
A guest speaker continues the chronological Bible series through the first two-thirds of Jesus' ministry, focusing on John 4 and Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, highlighting the theme of God in Christ coming into the mess to meet people.
The chronological Bible series crosses into the New Testament with the birth of Jesus, focusing on John 1 and "the Word became flesh" and on Luke 1's account of Gabriel announcing Jesus' birth to Mary, reflecting on the incarnation as an act only God could accomplish.
