The Cross Church Messages

The Cross Church Podcast
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The Cross Church is a community of believers with something for everyone. Here you will discover a warm group of real people dedicated to following our Jesus. For more information visit thecross.com

  1. 1d ago

    Your Moment of Truth | Pastor Kris Segrest | What were you placed here to do?

    What does it truly mean to stand up for what we believe when the cost is real and the pressure is immense? Drawing from the fourth chapter of Esther, we are invited into one of Scripture's most gripping moments of truth -- a young Jewish queen, positioned in a palace of power, suddenly faced with a choice that could cost her everything. The story of Esther is not just an ancient drama; it is a mirror held up to our own lives. Mordecai's refusal to bow to Haman, the threat of genocide against an entire people, and Esther's agonizing decision to approach the king uninvited all converge into a single, defining moment. The central lesson is both simple and sobering: a moment of truth reveals who we are. We are challenged to examine whether we have been living as secret saints, blending into a culture that increasingly demands silence from those who follow Christ. The historical parallel of Tank Man standing alone before a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square gives us a vivid and unforgettable image of what it looks like when one ordinary person refuses to step aside. Are we ready for our own Tank Man moment?

  2. Sep 28

    What Are You Willing To Bow To? | Pastor Kris Segrest | When Convictions Meet Pressure

    What does it look like to truly refuse compromise in a world that constantly pressures us to look the other way? Drawing from the ancient story of Esther and the villain Haman, we are confronted with a sobering and timely challenge: make no peace with evil. The book of Esther unfolds a drama that is startlingly relevant to the cultural and spiritual battles we face today. Haman's rise to power is not just a historical footnote; it is a warning about what happens when delayed obedience accumulates across generations. We trace the consequences back to King Saul's failure to fully obey God's command concerning the Amalekites, and we see how one act of partial obedience set in motion a crisis centuries later. This invites us to ask a deeply personal question: where in our own lives are we delaying what God has clearly called us to do? Partial obedience, the sermon reminds us, is not obedience at all. It is sin dressed in the clothing of reasonableness. The spiritual resilience of Mordecai, who refused day after day to bow his knee to Haman, shows us that courage is not a single dramatic moment but a daily decision. We are challenged to examine our own convictions and ask whether we have settled them deeply enough in private to hold them publicly when the pressure mounts.

  3. Sep 21

    Where Is God When You Can’t See Him? | Pastor Sam Draper | Silent Doesn’t Mean Still

    What do we do when life takes us somewhere we never asked to go? In Esther chapter 2, we find a young woman placed in a palace she never chose, navigating circumstances entirely outside her control. Yet within that uncomfortable room, something remarkable unfolds. God is not absent. He is not silent. He is assembling a picture piece by piece, and Esther cannot yet see what we can see looking back. This message invites us to sit with that tension and ask ourselves an honest question: have we been mistaking God's silence for his absence? The four-year gap between the events of Esther chapter 1 and chapter 2 is not wasted time. It is divine positioning. What looks like waiting from the inside looks like preparation from the outside. We are challenged to stop demanding that we see the whole picture before we trust the one who holds it, and instead to be faithful with the single piece God has placed in front of us right now.

  4. Aug 31

    Why Don’t We Tell People About This? | Pastor Kris Segrest | The Reason You’re Not Inviting People to Church

    What if the most powerful thing we could do for someone we love is simply extend an invitation? In this message, we dive into the Parable of the Great Banquet from Luke 14, where Jesus uses the image of a lavish dinner party to reveal something stunning about the heart of God and our role in His story. The celebration has already been prepared. Everything needed for a relationship with God has been accomplished, and there is a seat at the table waiting. Yet the parable confronts us with an uncomfortable truth: people make excuses, and sometimes we do too. We explore what it really means to compel people to come in, not by grabbing them by the throat with religious pressure, but by taking them by the hand and walking alongside them. The message challenges us to examine whether our passivity in sharing our faith reflects a deeper belief problem, and it calls us to see the Christian life not as a burden to protect but as a celebration worth shouting about. If we genuinely believe this is the best life available, the question becomes unavoidable: why are we keeping it to ourselves?

  5. Aug 24

    Crowd to Connection to Community to Communitas | Pastor Kris Segrest | Is Attending Church Enough?

    What truly keeps us rooted in our faith community? The answer might be simpler and more profound than we expect: relationships. Drawing from the powerful account in Mark chapter 2, where four determined friends tear through a roof to lower their paralyzed companion to Jesus, we are invited to examine where we stand in our own relational depth. The story presents us with four distinct levels of connection: the crowd, the connected, the community, and something even deeper called communitas. Most of us are comfortable in the crowd, showing up for the big moments, much like fans filling a stadium for a concert only to scatter when the event ends. But genuine, lasting faith is not built in crowds. It is built in the kind of relationships where people know not just our names, but our burdens, our fears, and our midnight prayers. The paralyzed man in Mark 2 could not carry himself, and neither can we when life brings us to our lowest points. The question this message leaves us with is both simple and searching: do we have our four? Do we have people who would tear off a roof for us, and for whom we would do the same?

  6. Aug 19

    Why Jesus Wants You To Join A Local Church

    What does it truly mean to be part of a church? Not just attending, not just watching online, but genuinely belonging to a community on mission together? This message cuts straight to the heart of that question by drawing a striking contrast between cohabitation and covenant. Just as a relationship of convenience looks similar to a marriage from the outside but lacks the depth of commitment, many of us have been treating the church the same way, showing up when it suits us, drifting when life gets busy, and never fully planting ourselves in the family God designed for us. The message anchors itself in the early church described in Acts 2, where five unmistakable marks of a genuine church emerge: a commitment to the gospel, gathering for worship, growing together in community, going on mission, and giving generously of time, talent, and treasure. These are not optional extras. They are the DNA of what the church was always meant to be. And when we understand that Jesus himself founded, owns, and sustains the church, declaring that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it, we realize we are not joining a human institution. We are enlisting in the most consequential mission in history.

  7. Aug 9

    The Five Movements of Surrender

    What does it look like to truly bow before God, not just in posture but in the full surrender of our lives? This gathering takes us deep into Ephesians 3:14-21, where Paul writes from a Roman prison, shackled and uncertain of his future, yet his heart is entirely fixed on interceding for the people he loves. The passage becomes a living template for us, moving through distinct postures of prayer: kneeling in remembrance of what God has already done, opening ourselves to the explosive, dynamite-like power of the Holy Spirit described in the Greek word dunamis, and inviting Christ to truly dwell, not just visit, in the innermost places of our hearts and homes. The stones of remembrance drawn from Joshua 24 remind us that before we press forward into a new season, we must pause and honor the faithfulness God has already shown. There is something profoundly countercultural about kneeling, about admitting we stand before a King, and yet that vulnerability is precisely where transformation begins. As we step into a new season filled with new rhythms and demands, this message calls us to recalibrate everything around the one who owns it all.

  8. Aug 4

    Faith in Motion

    Speaker: Sam Draper Series: Origin Stories What does it look like to stand at the edge of everything God has promised, knowing the only thing between you and it is a river you have to actually enter? In Joshua 1 and 3, we find the people of God at exactly that moment, and the lesson they faced is one we still face today. God had already made the promise. The land was already theirs. But the water was not going to part until their feet touched it. This is the difference between admiring faith and active faith. We explore what it means to stop waiting for certainty before we obey, and why so many of us are essentially praying for God to give us what he has already given us, while we stay safely on the shore. The crossing of the Jordan is not just an ancient story about a river. It is a mirror held up to every area of our lives where we know what God is asking and we have simply not moved yet. Whether it is a hard conversation, a step toward forgiveness, going public with our faith, or serving the people around us, God is not withholding. He is waiting. And the invitation this message extends to us is clear and urgent: take the first step.

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About

The Cross Church is a community of believers with something for everyone. Here you will discover a warm group of real people dedicated to following our Jesus. For more information visit thecross.com

Information

  • Creator
    The Cross Church Podcast
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    183
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Cross Church Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Cross Church Messages