King's Cross Church South Bay

"Saul has killed thousands, David has killed tens of thousands! ...and Saul eyed David." This week we come to what might be the most widely known account of envy in the Scriptures. I've never had anyone approach me and say, "I'm really struggling with envy." People have said that about lust, addiction, anger, even honesty... but never envy. So why might Americans turn a blind eye to what the early...

When the false alert hit yesterday, a parade of thoughts ran through my head. Is this real? Is what happened in the Palisades about to happen here? What do we take? Fears ran rampant. Even after the "oops, technical glitch," some fears remained. And a new level of compassion arose for those who have already lost what I only feared for a few minutes. How do we face fears like that - the kind that d...

This Sunday we begin a new series on the Life of David. From a historian's lens, this account is the longest single biography in the ancient world. Yet, through a biblical lens, it means much more. David is the long-desired king, a man after God's own heart, a songwriter, a victor and unifier... but also: a deeply flawed sinner, betrayer, adulterer and murderer. If we come to David seeking an insp...

What better way to enter 2025 than reflecting on what many regard as the main theme of the New Testament: our union with Christ! Jesus said that he is the Vine and we are the branches. He called us to abide in him. But how can we live in the ongoing awareness of that life-giving connection? Shouldn't it truly change us? Let's talk about "How to Really Change" (John 15:1-11).

What does a dream about a ladder have to do with Christmas? This week, as we conclude our Advent series, we come to the famous account of Jacob's Ladder. What often gets overlooked is Jacob's isolation and despondency. He is literally using a stone for a pillow. He's lied to his father, betrayed his brother, and is alone in the middle of nowhere. He's likely questioning whether 'the blessing' (and...

The Advent season is in full swing. Join us as we celebrate the Incarnation. This worship service will be a combination of classic Christmas hymns and traditional readings interspersed with brief meditations. Also, the children’s ministry has special music for us. Call to worship: Genesis 1:1-4,26-27 First Reading: Genesis 3:1-15 Second Reading: Isaiah 9:2,6-7; Luke 1:26-38, 46-55 Third Reading: M...

As we continue our Advent series on the Stump of Jesse, we come to the binding of Isaac. This account is appropriately upsetting for anyone who asks the question: what can God rightly ask of me? The underlying issue is a question of trust. Do I think he's the kind of being who would take advantage of me for his own whims? And with what he asks of Abraham, the answer appears to be terrifying. What...

This Sunday we begin an Advent series. Advent is a time to look back to the coming of Christ in the Incarnation, and to look forward to when he will come again. We will spend this month looking at passages that foreshadowed the coming of Christ. This week we come to Noah and the Ark. Someone says: "for Christmas? That's a bit... dark." The traditional topic of the first week of Advent is judgment,...

Kobe Bean Bryant famously said, “Job’s not finished.” Whether in sports, work, and even in our faith, there can be a tendency to settle or take it easy, thinking we have done all that is needed to be done. But as we journey in our faith, in the “already, but not yet,” we are called to press on and seek to be more like Christ. Join us this Sunday as we conclude our two-part series in Philippians 3...

This Sunday we begin a two-week mini-series in Philippians 3. As we approach Thanksgiving, it is worth pondering why so often our lives can feel joyless and thankless. As CS Lewis wrote, “the unmistakable mark of Hell is the unsmiling concentration on the self.” Clearly, our self-focus is stealing our joy. But why does that keep happening, even among Christians? And how do we fight for lasting joy...

We finally come to the end of our series in 1 John. He ends by simply saying, Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. John is not just throwing out one more command, like a parent saying "buckle up; don't speed!" as you walk out the door. No, he is summing up the entire goal of his letter. Grace has an agenda: that we be both happy and holy. Let's talk about "Keep Yourselves From Idols" (1 John...

We are nearing the end of our series on the letter of 1 John, and he returns to his main concern. John wrote this letter because he perceived a serious threat from the emerging ideas of Gnosticism, which were beginning to seep into the Church. While that may sound incredibly distant from us, there are significant parallels to today. They were twisting the historical truth of Jesus' life to match t...

Why does following the rules so often feel burdensome, especially when it comes to God's rules? This week in our series in 1 John, he is addressing precisely that problem. John insists God's commands are not burdensome, but the fact that they feel that way is exposing something in us that makes them feel enslaving. Only to the degree that problem is addressed will we increasingly experience joy in...

"God is love" -- seemingly one of the most agreed-upon ideas about God in Western society. However, what people tend to mean by that phrase might better be stated "Love is God." In other words, 'whatever ideas someone has about love... God must be like that.' Ironically, the idea that "God is love" primarily comes from Scripture, especially 1 John 4, which states that exact phrase. However, John i...

Who is the Holy Spirit? What does he do? Is this just "May the Force be with you" or is something more going on? This week in our study of 1 John, he gives us a test for the Holy Spirit. And clearly he expects the Spirit to have a very practical and personal role in our lives. Modern Christians tend to have one of two misunderstandings: either basically to ignore the Spirit or alternatively to foc...

This Sunday, as we continue our series in 1 John, we return to one of John's cyclical themes: love one another. But this time, instead of just stating the idea, he gets personal: you cannot love God and hate your brother. Cain and Abel get a reference. John even calls out the problem of just giving lip service. You get the sense that he knows his people are genuinely struggling to love each other....

Last Sunday we considered the joy of adoption. This Sunday we talk about the challenge of living an adopted life. To that point: it is simple enough to get the child out of the orphanage, but it is much harder to get the orphanage out of the child. Or to put it more practically: how do we actually change? Even if I know what I should do, I often continue doing the same old things. Theologians call...

This Sunday, as we continue in 1 John, he talks about adoption into the family of God. For any child, being adopted has enormous implications -- past, present, & future. It is intensely personal and wondrously life-altering. Or is it? As John writes this passage, he seems to feel the need to remind them of something they have forgotten. How could we begin to sleepwalk through a gift that should cr...

This week, as we continue our series in 1 John, we come to a passage talking about the last hour and antichrists. It's the kind of passage some Christians simply avoid while others seem to go down a rabbit hole. John intends neither of those options. Instead, he is writing churches with passionate concern for how they are struggling to stay focused on what matters most. While the culture outside t...

Last week we saw that Biblical freedom is obedience. That is not at all how our world thinks today. If so, it invites a question: how do followers of Christ relate to 'the world'? We've already heard John talk about the darkness of the world, and now he is warning us "Do not love the world or the things in it..." But isn't this the same John who wrote "God so loved the world..." (John 3:16)? If Go...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer popularized the term "cheap grace" in his book "The Cost of Discipleship" in 1937, but the idea is certainly much older (eg, Rom.6:1). His concern was for a hollow imitation of grace that extended forgiveness without repentance, love without truth, life without transformation - in short, a "Christianity" without Jesus' call to change. Last week we talked about Christ our advoca...

Woody Allen famously said, "the heart wants what it wants." Yet many do not know Emily Dickinson said it a century earlier, and went on to say "...or else it does not care." Ironically, Allen was using it to justify his personal choices, whereas Dickinson was warning that our hearts are often indifferent to reason. Either way, both are acknowledging a serious problem with the notion of "follow you...

This week we return to our series in First John. When the Bible contrasts light and dark, it is not talking about skin color, intellectual capacity or even psychological inclinations - but rather our relationship with God. We can be well-adjusted, culturally savvy, or incredibly intelligent, yet still have a deeply distorted sense of self. It's almost like rain falling on a sidewalk chalk drawing;...

God's grace gathers us together in order to send us back out to share that grace. Let's hear the Good News that we are called to be "Gathered and Scattered" (Rom. 9:30-10:17).

We live in a complex, cosmopolitan society with a variety of beliefs and competing temples of worship. Christians are not called to isolate, but engage with our society. Yet the constant temptation will be to syncretize the various views we are hearing. We do it almost subconsciously. What would anchor us in the midst of such an environment, not only 'out there' but even within ourselves? If only...