The King’s Cross elders and deacons met yesterday for our annual vision meeting. This is an annual opportunity to review the previous year and make bigger picture plans for the coming years. One of the significant items to be thankful for is how many more of you there are this year, about 140 new members, including 66 baptisms. And with that, God has raised up 5 new elders, 2 new deacons, as well as 2 new deacons in training. God is very good. 

Related to that, one of the things we discussed yesterday was how we can continue growing in our elder care for you. As you hopefully know, when you become a member of King’s Cross, you are assigned an elder. You’re always welcome to talk to any of the elders or pastors about anything, but this is our way of making sure that at least one elder is keeping an eye out for you and occasionally checking in. The King’s Cross elders meet every Monday afternoon, and once a month one of the elders gives a short report on the folks on his list. With 8 parish elders, we get through the lists about 1.5 times per year. Elders have historically reached out via email, phone call, or offered to take folks out to lunch or coffee, or sometimes schedule a visit in your home. 

The elders specifically asked me to give you all a heads up that you should be expecting more requests for home visits. Some of you come from backgrounds where this has never happened, and if an elder reaches out to schedule a visit in your home, you don’t need to panic as if you’re trouble (unless you are). Others of you come from traditions where you might be used to a pretty regimented schedule of elder visits, perhaps with your name even printed in the bulletin for that week’s elder visit with everyone praying for you. We’re definitely aiming for something less rigid, but we really do believe that it will help us know you better and pray for you and shepherd you better. So be on the look out for that. And lastly, if you think you might have fallen through the cracks and can’t remember if an elder has ever reached out, please send up a flare. 

Toby Sumpter – January 28, 2024

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In God’s providence we live in tumultuous times. We are some of the most blessed human beings who have ever lived, with the technologies and conveniences and wealth we enjoy. And we live in corrupt and degenerate times. As Cotton Mather once said, “Religion begot prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.” God warned Israel of this very thing in Deuteronomy, saying that their great temptation with all of God’s blessings would be to forget God and think they had gotten all their prosperity themselves. And the greater the blessing, the greater the disaster when a people forget God. 

And we live in those calamitous times. The madness that we are seeing around us is no accident at all. When you sow the wind, you always reap the whirlwind. We’ve already seen the opening convulsions in 2020, politically, economically, culturally, and 2024 is shaping up to be another rodeo. How should Christians think about this? How should we prepare?

First, remember that human beings are the most precious created resource. Think of preparing for tumultuous times like a Christian. Which means get your heart clean before God first. You will be in no position to be helpful if the wheels come off if your heart is clogged up with all kinds of lusts and bitterness. If you want to see clearly to know what to do, get rid of the logs in your eyes. Then make sure you’re in fellowship with as many people around you as possible, beginning with the people you live with. Confess your sins, get rid of your grudges, forgive freely. 

Finally, one of the great lessons of the Old Testament is that God is just, and He does not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He would not have destroyed Sodom if there had been 10 righteous, and he still delivered Lot and later He delivered Rahab and her family from Jericho. God’s judgments fall with laser precision. When there was nothing but darkness in Egypt, there was light in Goshen; when the angel of death passed over, there was blood over the doorposts of those who believed. So do not fear the judgments of God. He is Your Father. He counts every hair on your head. Remain faithful at your stations, serving your people, trusting your God.

Toby Sumpter – January 14, 2024

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Technology is a tool, and modern communications technology is no different. Cranes and bulldozers are tools for lifting and carry heavy objects and moving earth. Smart phones and messaging and texting and social media platforms are tools that make the heavy lifting and moving of words and communication easier. So all by themselves, tools are gifts from God, and therefore the fundamental question is: what are you using them for? You can use a crane with a wrecking ball or a bulldozer to break things (and if that’s what needed to be done, that’s great). 

Scripture teaches that the tongue is like a sword, like a flamethrower, like the rudder of a great ship, and therefore, communication technologies amplify the power of the tongue, for good or for ill. While social media can spread lies, slander, propaganda, pornography, and destruction, by the same token, it can be used for great good: spreading the truth, knowledge, gratitude, the gospel, and some measure of community. 

So what are you using these tools for? How are you teaching your family to use these tools? A father who buys his ten year old son a wrecking ball for Christmas may be considered the greatest dad ever for about fifteen minutes, until the first house on the street is leveled. But just as firearms and chain saws are dangerous but have good and lawful uses, parents who do not give any teaching or training for the right use of phones and social media are not preparing their children for the real world. 

There is certainly freedom for greater or lesser use of various tools. But do not kid yourself in either direction. Do not pat yourself on the back for rejecting smart phones and social media apps, and do not pat yourself on the back for embracing them. This is really no better than congratulating yourself on whether or not you allow the use of hammers in your house. The question is: how is the tool being used? Are you talking about it? Are you discussing it? Are you checking in and walking together in wisdom? Don’t assume anything. Your goal is to love God and love one another with these tools in true wisdom.

Toby Sumpter – December 31, 2023

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Psalm 128 is one of our community’s favorite psalms: “Blessed the man who fears Jehovah…” But do you stop and consider that opening line? Blessed is the man who fears Jehovah. It is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10), and especially when it comes to worship, we are required to draw near with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28-29). 

When John saw Jesus, it says that he fell down at his feet like a dead man (Rev. 1:17). God is described in Scripture like a great and terrible storm of glory and majesty. “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein” (Nah. 1:4). When Israel met with the Lord at Mt. Sinai, thick smoke and clouds descended on the mountain, full of lightning and thunder, and the whole mountain shook (Ex. 19:16-18). Think of standing in front of a volcano, a tornado, and tidal wave of glory as high as a mountain towering over you. 

Even the presence of angels are described as terrifying. The first words out of the mouths of angels are almost always: “do not be afraid/fear not.” If the messengers of God make people tremble, how much more God Himself? 

God is immense, majestic, and even in His goodness, there is awe and reverence, and the sense that we deserve to die. The fear of God shows us that we are next to nothing compared to Him – dust and ashes compared to Him. And then add to that our sins, and yes, even our forgiven sins, creates what John Bunyan called a “blessed confusion” – deep shame combined with profound relief. 

This is the salt that is to season our entire lives: God’s immense greatness, our miniscule frailty, and His glorious goodness in the face of our filth and rebellion. 

And it is to be particularly evident in our worship. The psalmist says, “rejoice with trembling.” As they sang on the banks of the Red Sea: “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Ex. 15:11)

Toby Sumpter – December 10, 2023

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Why do we worship the way we do? One way to answer this question is by noticing the texts in the New Testament that urge us to offer our bodies and our praises as sacrifices: We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). When we walk in love toward one another, it’s a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:2). When we give offerings and gifts to the work of ministry, it’s a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God (Phil. 4:18). When we acknowledge God and do good and share with one another, these are sacrifices of praise, pleasing to God (Heb. 13:15-16). We are being built up into a spiritual house together in the church, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5). 

But once we establish this point that New Covenant worship is to be full of these kinds of spiritual sacrifices of praise, we realize that the Old Covenant sacrifices were our training wheels. They were previews of the final bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, but they were also tutors or teachers, preparing us to offer what God truly always wanted: broken and soft hearts, lips of praise and thanksgiving, joyful fellowship, and wholly consecrated lives. 

And that is what we find in the three principle Old Testament sacrifices: a sin offering focused on cleansing from sin, a whole burnt ascension offering – focused on a wholly consecrated life arising to God as sweet smelling aroma, and a peace offering, where the worshipers ate and fellowshipped in the presence of God. And wherever we find those three sacrifices together, they are always offered in that order: sin offering, whole burnt ascension offering, and peace offering. 

If you add a Call to Worship to the beginning and a benediction at the end, we find this same basic pattern of Christian worship throughout the history of the Church: we are called into the presence of God, we confess our sins, we hear the Word read and preached, consecrating our entire lives to Him, we sit down for communion in His presence, and then we are sent out with His blessing. Why do we worship this way? Because we are holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. 

Toby Sumpter – December 3, 2023

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