King's Cross Church South Bay

We begin a mini-series of successive topics Paul hits on "Living It Out." This week we look at truth - not just truth-telling, but the problem we have with living the truth out in our daily lives. Jeremiah said, "the heart is deceitful above all things" (17:9) - so how practically shall "you know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (Jn.8:32)? Let's talk about how the Gospel transforms lia...

Much like the Trinity, we are a diverse unity, a living body, and Christ is the head. If you’re a member of this miraculous body, then God has given you a role to play, unique from others, that points people to Jesus. God is a giver, and it’s as if we’re a present to one another; an expensive gift! Discussion Questions What are some of your natural abilities? Do have any sense of what your spiritu...

The subject of “unity” is the theme of the moment, isn’t it? The great thing about preaching sequentially through a book of the Bible is that you know your pastor doesn't dictate the topics. And, in God's providence, this week we come to Ephesians 4:1-6, which is all about the unity found in Christ. That's not a social or political statement, though it has implications for all of that and more. Th...

We come to the turning point in the book of Ephesians. As we’ve said before, beliefs take action. Our theology gets legs. After three chapters of doctrine, Paul now gets really specific about how we should live out “Being the Church." He calls us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. But if so, what was all that talk about grace being unearned? How can we live the "worth" of something that ca...

After all the turmoil in DC this week, it is assuring to remember our security is founded in courts that are unassailable. Last week we dove into Paul's prayer for us to know the comprehensiveness of God's love. This week we return to that prayer to focus on two words: "rooted" and "grounded." How do we practically drive these truths into our hearts? Frankly, some of the images coming out of Washi...

Our passage this week leads us to tap into an often-neglected resource: Prayer. Discussion Questions What has God given you that you’ve under-utilized? If we were meant to fly, why do we waddle? Disconnect We tend to go to our familiar places when we’re under stress. Where do you go? Prayer often is a last resort, when it should be our first move. Why is that? Where’s the disconnect? This disconne...

Now that Christmas has come, what joy and hope can we carry with us after the decorations come down? Roughly a month after Jesus' birth, he was taken to the temple for purification, and there his family encountered Simeon - an old man who is consoled by Jesus' birth, but who also predicts it will divide the hearts of many. How does Christmas both console and divide? What hope does that give us now...

There is a danger inherent to Christmas nostalgia - namely that we would long for something other than who Jesus reveals himself to be. So as we come to a very famous passage, let's pray that God would show us who He is in fresh ways. Why come like this? What is he showing us about who he is as well as our own need? And how does that lead us to the very joy we are longing for as this year comes to...

Fleming Rutledge has said, "Advent begins in the dark..." but the whole point of Christmas is the coming of the Light of the World. Here we’ll look at another response to Christmas: a troubled teen. While it is easy for us to romanticize the story of the Incarnation with nostalgia and the bigger picture, it was incredibly difficult for those who lived through it - especially Mary. For her, Christm...

This year has felt like Narnia: “Always winter but never Christmas.” Yet Christmas is finally arriving, and we need the hope of the historical truth it represents. We begin a new series called, “The Weary World Rejoices: Responding to Christmas.” With all of the emotions 2020 has elicited, it's important to remember that Christ's original coming also evoked a variety of responses. For the next mon...

Paul is writing from prison and it’s like he’s inviting us to join him! For Americans who have learned to guard and demand our rights (I’m no different), this kind of message threatens the very core of our existence. But he’s really giving us a gift that’s useful each and every day: how to turn our suffering into an opportunity to get more of Jesus in our lives. Let’s talk about Prison, In A Good...

We come to a passage that reminds us of how God unites us. In a year so filled with division and us-them narratives, Paul reminds us that Jesus has "torn down the dividing wall of hostility." What does that mean? And how can that bring us together? Let's talk about "being built together" on our sure foundation Discussion Questions where we came from Do you remember Paul’s first command in the lett...

This week we come to one of the most well-known passages in Ephesians. We have been saved by grace! Our faith is a gift; it is not earned. Yet what is often overlooked (especially by those who are overly familiar) is how Paul directly connects "works" to this discussion of grace - and in particular how works are expected to flow from grace. If Paul stresses that we are saved by grace and not works...

Last week, we heard the very hard truth that we were all dead in sin. Paul follows that with the incredible claim that we’ve been raised and seated in heaven - past tense! This news is meant to be incredibly encouraging, but what exactly does that mean? How can it be past tense? And how does that encourage us or help us in the middle of a workweek? Paul seems to be flipping the old cliché about "b...

Ephesians 2 begins with a very blunt, raw statement of the human condition: that we are "dead in sin." Paul knows we have to understand the bad news in order to have the good news change us. Yet for this week, we are primarily going to consider the bad news. That might sound ridiculous in a week when local shops in LA are literally boarding up their windows in anticipation of election turmoil, but...

We come to Paul's prayer for the Church. Paul makes some incredible statements here, but many followers of Christ struggle to see or experience something like this. Why is something as central as prayer such a difficult thing for so many of us? Let's talk about what prayer is, the power it has, and how to experience that power in our lives (both individually and as a church). Discussion Questions...

What does it mean when someone says "Have a blessed day"? In this message, we will consider what the Bible means by the term blessed. There are lots of promises in the Scriptures that expressly convey blessing upon God's people - but it seems many of us struggle to put words to what precisely that means. It is clearly meant to be an incredible promise that brings practical encouragement, but how c...

We come to the idea of 'redemption' (v.7-8) - our need for a rescue and the cost of that rescue. For many in LA, those are not always popular ideas, but what is underneath is! How deep is this love? What are you worth to God? It's only to the degree we begin to grasp the depth of this that joy increasingly permeates our lives, and that is what begins to change us from the inside-out. Frankly, I ne...

We can all so quickly turn on one another, especially when the current climate already has us stressed. Now more than ever, it’s vital that we understand and embrace our unity with one another through Jesus. In God's providence, this Sunday we come to a passage not merely about unity... but about union - union with Christ. How does that help us? Jesus gathered rich and poor, men and women, insider...

We are starting a new series in the book of Ephesians - a letter of Paul all about Being the Church. At a time when many are wrestling with whether churches should meet, if they are a necessity, and how they might help, this topic seems incredibly relevant. What does it mean to be "the Church" right now? And notice, that's not simply a question Christians alone are asking, but many who do not cons...

Throughout Exodus, from the Rescue to the Rules and beyond, God's goal has been nothing less than for his people to see his glory and worship him. So God had them build a... tent. What?! A tent? Talk about anticlimactic. Why? The whole second half of the book is about building the tabernacle, including all sorts of specifications and what should be placed inside. For modern readers, it can often s...

"The Rescue came before the Rules..." but we're taking three weeks to talk about what they did after the Rules came. How did God's people react to the 10 Commandments? The goal is that they would increasingly see God's glory. But they really struggled with that, a lot! And that encourages us, because we do too - and especially since God did not leave them to wallow in that struggle without help. S...

What came after the 10 Commandments? How did God's people respond? Well... they built a big tent. Why? The primary goal of Exodus is namely that God would be with his people and that they might experience his Glory. For the most part, that word has few practical uses in our modern, daily lives and probably is not very compelling for many of you. And yet Paul wrote: "so whatever you do, whether you...

We come to the last of the 10 Commandments: “You shall not covet...” As Paul pointed out in Romans 7, this commandment is explicitly internal. If we wanted to dodge the others as merely a checklist of actions to avoid (i.e., "don't kill people, cheat on your spouse, steal or lie - got it!"), the tenth commandment will not let us off the hook so easily. Coveting does not outwardly injure my neighbo...

The ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” So... don't lie? Is that it? Seems pretty pedestrian after hearing about family, power, sex and money. Is God tapering off here at the end? If only. As Jeremiah wrote, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick (Jer.17:9). David asked who can discern his own errors? (Ps.19:10) And John said that if w...