King's Cross Church
Stand alone sermons and exhortations from our sister congregation in Moscow, ID.
Resurrection Hope
March 31, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Acts 26:4–23
Far too many people in the church are not truly converted to God. They are religious or maybe conservative, but they do not know Christ and the power of His resurrection. They know about Christ, and perhaps they know about the Bible and catechism answers. But they do not know Christ, and this is obvious because sin still has power over them. They are still dead in their sins, even while they may think they are serving God. This is what Saul/Paul thought until the Risen Jesus met him and gave him a new life.
True Authority
March 24, 2024 • Toby Sumpter • Matthew 21:1–16
Our modern world pits authority against friendship, falsely insisting that friendship can only exist between complete equals. But in that case, a complete equal has nothing to offer, nothing to contribute. True friendship exists in relations of inequality and hierarchy, where different parties have different skills and responsibilities. Ultimately, this heresy of egalitarianism seethes with pride that hates the authority and friendship of God over sinful creatures – that we are completely dependent on Him, that He has made us and not we ourselves, and that true blessing only exists in bowing before Him. But that is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday and every Sunday. God made us, and God saves sinners. He has true authority, and He is good and therefore He defines what is good.
The Severe Grace of Church Discipline
February 25, 2024 • Shawn Paterson • 1 Corinthians 5
As a young church, we have not yet experienced a public church discipline case. While the elders have been active in encouraging, admonishing, and occasionally suspending individuals from the Lord’s Supper privately, we have not yet reached the point of needing to go through the formal process of excommunication. But if we are a faithful church, a time is coming when we will have to work through this together. Therefore, we should seek to understand the biblical practice of formal church discipline now in order that we may be found faithful when confronted with the task.
Sing Psalms
June 20, 2022 • Toby Sumpter
The Psalms are the war songs of the Church. The Psalms are the steak and potatoes for men and women, boys and girls committed to fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil. Do you want joy in your home? Sing Psalms around your dinner table. Do you want to drive away temptation, bad attitudes, hard hearts, and just plain taunt the Devil? Sing Psalms in your car. Do you want God to grant Reformation to our land and silence the proud and the foolish? Sing Psalms every chance you get.
God Our Father
June 23, 2022 • Shawn Paterson
J. I. Packer once wrote that if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. For Packer, the fatherhood of God and adoption in Christ are the sum of New Testament religion. Christians are people who have God as their Father. By nature, this is not so. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he explains that we were once dead in our trespasses and sins and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive by uniting us to Christ in His death and resurrection and adopting us in His Son. You have been adopted in Christ, and so you too hear “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” in the waters of baptism. You have been adopted in Christ, and so you too pray to God saying, “Our Father who art in heaven…” You have been adopted in Christ, and so you too can cry out “Abba! Father!” as a son and heir through God. And the privileges go on and on… You have been adopted into the family of God, and you have been made one with the Father in His Son, bound together by the Spirit’s love. God as your Father ought to be at the forefront of all your prayer, worship, and work. It ought to be the predominant image in your mind when you hear the word “God.” To miss this is to miss the heart of the gospel. As the Apostle John exclaimed, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are” (1 Jn. 3:1). So do you truly know God as your Father? There is only way to Him, and it is through His Son. And this is Good News for you today.
We Have Seen & We Remember
June 30, 2022 • Toby Sumpter
We have a ton of work to do. But we do not work from a place of fear. We work from a place of gratitude, a place of deep thanksgiving, because we serve a God who hears the prayers of His people, a God who saves. And we know this because we have seen it with our own eyes, and because we remember.
Lazarus, Come Forth
September 30, 2022 • Shawn Paterson • John 11:38–44
This same Word, that created the world out of nothing and raised Lazarus from the dead, has called you—and He called you by name. If you are a Christian, you have been born again through that same Word of God that abides forever. It is out of God’s own eternal will and good pleasure that He has brought you forth by His Word and made you a new creation. If you know this to be true, give thanks to God for His great grace and endeavor to walk daily in accordance with that Word which has saved you. And if you have not yet heard His voice, He is calling to you right now. The Lord is calling you by name, out of your sin and shame, to glorious fellowship with Himself, saying, “Come forth…”
The Soil of Honor
November 17, 2022 • Shawn Paterson
If your relationship with your parents or in-laws is strained, if there are any difficulties present, that is not a reason to leave honor behind. Rather, honoring them is the path forward. Love covers a multitude of sins. And if there is any sin present that cannot be covered much longer, then you need honor to be the atmosphere in which it is eventually addressed. So as you begin to make those holiday to-do lists, include on there the need to prepare your hearts in order to express honor toward your parents. For it is in the soil of honor that God is pleased to grow the fruit of love, joy, and peace.
Another Reformation
November 21, 2022 • Shawn Paterson
So where does this new Reformation start? It begins here. It begins with our corporate worship of the Triune God, and then flows into our families, our work, and our communities. For out of the Temple flows a living river that reaches to the ends of the earth, bringing new life everywhere it goes.
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
November 30, 2022 • Shawn Paterson
This longing for our Lord’s coming must not be confined to tidy church calendars and liturgical seasons, useful as they are. Rather, it should be one of our foundational prayers throughout the year and in all circumstances. Our most fundamental need is for the Lord Jesus to come.