Explore every episode of the podcast Keystone Church | Paradise Sermons

Kyle Kauffman | Nov 24 2024

Do we believe that God truly loves the world? Do we believe it is God’s desire to save sinners? Do we believe that God does not wish for any to perish? It’s easy for the church to become inward focused and to lose its passion to see the gospel advance and sinners saved. But when this happens, we actually have lost our understanding of God’s heart for the world. Jonah is a book that displays God’s love not just for his people, but also for those who are not yet his people. We, as his people, are called to have the same heart that God has for the world. God is always moving outward in His love for people and he calls the church reflect his heart by moving outward as well.

Kyle Kauffman | Nov 17 2024

Jonah’s response to the salvation of Nineveh is one of the most surprising parts of this book. How can Jonah be so upset that God chose to save Nineveh? Why would Jonah, who has been a recipient of God’s amazing love and grace, be so angry when God shows that same love and grace to others? Yet, even as we ask those questions, we are forced to see something of ourselves in Jonah. How often, do we as recipients of God’s grace live with an attitude towards others that is completely out of line with his grace? How often are we who have bene saved, completely comfortable with the through that other will perish? How often does our attitude towards the world (especially whoever we perceive as our enemies) the same as Jonah’s?

Brandon Fisher | Nov 10 2024

Jonah 3:5-10 may be one of the most surprising sections of the Bible. An entire city, along with its King, who were enemies of God and His people believe the message of Jonah and responded in repentance. We find in this section that God’s power is able to save even those who we think are most beyond the reach of saving. We find a picture of what true repentance looks like. And we also see a beautiful picture of how God responds to repentance.

Adam Nagle | November 3 2024

Kyle Kauffman | Oct. 27 2024

God’s saving love experienced is what he uses to commission us to be messengers of His word to others. God saves people so that he might then send them to warn others and speak his message of salvation to others. His love is what qualifies and calls us to be His ambassadors to the world. While not every Christian is called to be a missionary (like Jonah), all Christians are called to take part in God’s mission to spread the gospel by speaking the truth. And yet the story of Jonah tells us that even when we blow it as God’s messengers, there is still hope for us. And even when our message is incomplete or inadequate, God is able to save.

Kyle Kauffman | Oct. 20 2024

God acts in history to save people. This is how God displays his love. This is how we experience God’s love. This is not just the story of Jonah, but it’s also the story of the entire Bible and it’s the story of everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus. Jonah’s powerful prayer/psalm gives us a memorable picture of how God acts to save his people. It leads us to praise, dependence, and trust as we look to the God who saves in our own lives. And it points us to our Savior and what he experienced in order to accomplish our salvation.

Kyle Kauffman | Oct 13 2024

Love can be painful because love seeks to do what’s in the best interest of someone else even when it hurts. We often conceive of love in nice and neat categories. But Jonah shows us that God’s love is what will lead him to send storms our way in this life. These storms are often the very means God uses to save us, to expose and destroy our idols, and to draw us back to him when and where we have wandered. God’s love is also what drove him to send his greatest storm upon His very own Son so that we could be saved.

Kyle Kauffman | Oct 6 2024

Jonah 1:4 opens with one of the greatest phrases in the bible, “But the LORD.” Left to ourselves we would be completely lost and hopeless. We would remain estranged from God for all eternity. But the LORD shows his love in pursuing us. We see in the story of the sailors on the ship that salvation is a result of God’s intentional pursuit. And we see in the story of Jonah on the ship that our continued hope in the face of hearts that are prone to wander is God’s continual pursuit of us. Just as our love for another person is often displayed in our intentional pursuit of them, so also God’s love is displayed in his intentional pursuit of us. And our salvation, far from simply being a decision we made, is a display of the glory and sovereignty of God.

Jonah 1:4-16

Joel Wood | Sept 29 2024

This sermon is meant to provide an introduction to the book of Jonah by helping us to understand who Jonah was and what was taking place in history at the time of Jonah’s life. This sermon is also meant to show how Jonah’s response to God’s call exposes our own sinful hearts. We all hear God’s call, whether it’s to believe in Him or change how we’re living for Him. However, left to ourselves we all disobey God’s word, seek to escape his presence, and reject his authority over our lives. We are all JONAH and in desperate need of God’s loving and relentless pursuit of us. And like JONAH, we have a message to take to an unbelieving world because God’s heart is for all nations.

Kyle Kauffman | Sept 22 2024

God saves us completely by grace. But he expects that His grace will lead us to be active participants in his Kingdom. God entrusts into our care all sorts of things: relationships, opportunities, and resources. And he expects us to steward what he has entrusted into our care for His glory. We are meant to look for the ways God has given us to love and serve others. And we are meant to see all the resources we have been given as resources that can be used to love and serve others. God promises that those who serve and steward well what he has given to them will be rewarded. And he warns that those who waste their lives will actually lose their lives for eternity. We must continually ask the question, “Is my life being lived to serve my King? Or is my life simply being lived to serve myself?”

Kyle Kauffman | Sept 15 2024

If you expect something big and important is going to happen, you naturally watch for it and wait eagerly for it. Those who belong to God’s Kingdom are expecting Jesus to return. We believe that He is coming back again to dwell forever with the church. It can be easy to forget this as Jesus delays his return. But if we truly believe Jesus is returning and that his return will be glorious, then we are meant to watch and wait eagerly for his return. Our watching and waiting shows itself as we prepare ourselves for Jesus’ return and carry out what he has called us to do in the present.

Kyle Kauffman | Sept 8 2024

In two short valuables we are told that God’s Kingdom is so valuable it is worth sacrificing everything else in this life for. Which might lead us to ask, “What is it that makes God’s Kingdom so valuable?” And the answer to that question comes in the form of a person. Jesus is the great treasure of God’s Kingdom. This means belonging to and living in God’s Kingdom involves both trusting Jesus as savior and treasuring Jesus above all else in this world. And those who see Jesus as their greatest treasure are then willing to gladly sacrifice and give up everything else for his sake. This means that one of the most important parts of living in God’s Kingdom is to have our hearts and minds happy and satisfied in Jesus. Those who know the worth of Jesus are those who joyfully give up their lives and the things of this life to follow Jesus and make him known.

Kyle Kauffman | September 1 2024

God’s Kingdom is marked by radical forgiveness. Though we owe him a debt we could never pay, He fully and freely forgives us. And he now calls us to do the same with others. Our lives bear testimony to God’s great forgiveness by how we forgive and forbear with the sins of others. And yet so often we are like the servant in the parable who refuses to extend forgiveness as we hold grudges or try to make others ‘pay’ for the wrongs they’ve done to us. Jesus means for this parable to both shock us with the wonder of God’s forgiveness and shock us with how quickly our lives can fail to appreciate and reflect that forgiveness in how we relate to each other.

Kyle Kauffman | August 25 2024

To belong to God’s Kingdom means to see our lives and all we have as belonging to Him. He is the one who created us and is meant to rule over us. And yet often, we try to rule over our lives rather than submitting ourselves to His rule. We hold onto things as if they belong to us, rather than gladly entrusting them to His care. We refuse to do obey Him even after He patiently calls for our obedience. The greatest act of resistance is to reject God’s Son who came to give his life for us so that we might live our lives for Him. If we resist God’s rule and reject His sovereignty over our lives then God will pour out His judgment on us.

Brandon Fisher | August 18 2024

God loves to give people what they don’t deserve in order to display His generosity. His Kingdom is a Kingdom of grace where he gives what he pleases to whom He pleases. We can be prone to believe that we deserve more than what we have been given. But those who live within God’s Kingdom are meant to see all they have been given as undeserved grace. This then enables us to live with joyful gratitude and rejoice in evidences of God’s grace to other people.

Kyle Kauffman | August 11 2024

Our lives in this world are full of mystery. We often cannot understand why God doesn’t always answer our prayers, especially when we perceive the thing we are praying for is a good thing. It’s easy for us to give up praying or to doubt God’s goodness. Jesus knew this would be the case. And so he told a parable that can encourage us to persist in praying. We find that one of the ways we display our faith is by continuing to pray and trusting God to do what is right. We find that God is pleased with us as we pester him in prayer. Because He is a God who loves to be “bothered” by his people.

Kyle Kauffman | Aug 4 2024

We cannot save ourselves or prove ourselves worthy of God’s Kingdom. It’s only when we realize how unworthy we are that we are then prepared to receive God’s Kingdom as a gift. We are prone to think we can save ourselves because we believe our sin is not that bad and that we are actually pretty good. This is only heightened as we look around and compare ourselves to other people. It’s easy for us to start to think God loves us and will save us because we are better at keeping “the rules” then others. But God’s Kingdom is full of people who are “really big sinners,” because only “really big sinners” know how much they need mercy. Meanwhile there are a lot of “really good people” who never enter God’s Kingdom because their “goodness” keeps them from knowing how much they need mercy.

Joel Wood | July 28 2024

God’s Word, and specifically the good news of the gospel, is what God uses to draw people into His Kingdom. But not all those who hear God’s Word respond to it in faith and believe. Jesus reveals the various responses people have to the message of the Kingdom in the story of the sower, or more accurately, the story of the soils. This surprising story calls out those who are hardened to the truth, shallow in their faith, or distracted by their world, leaving only one type of hearer who believes. . .whose heart is fertile and ready soil for the Gospel. The response reveals the heart and ultimately their relationship to God and His Kingdom. This story also presents an encouragement to all who proclaim Gods’ Word. We must remember the results lie outside of our control, but remain in the sovereign hands of the King who rules over the results of His Word, which far outweigh all our expectations.

Joel Wood | July 21, 2024

Jesus was, and still is, the greatest teacher the world has ever known. While Jesus taught in many ways, one of the most specific and impacting was in using parables. Often, we think of Jesus parables as sermon illustrations or stories that merely helped people pay attention. Jesus stories were certainly captivating and they helped to illustrate truth, but there is more happening in Jesus’ parables than that. Jesus spoke in parables to reveal the secrets of God’s kingdom, to help us to understand what that Kingdom is like, what it means to belong to it, and how we are to live our everyday lives in light of it. More than that, Jesus also spoke in parables to reveal who was truly a part of God’s kingdom. In fact, the parables Jesus shared were purposely designed to reveal the condition of His hearers’ hearts and bring the gospel to bear on their lives. Using a simple story to convey a singular and powerful point about the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ parables either draw us in to a closer relationship with Him through repentance and faith, or push us away in confusion and rejection. Our response to them makes all the difference in our lives both for today and for eternity.

Brandon Fisher | July 14 2024

We all long for a “perfect life.” We may have different ideas of what a perfect life looks like, but the longing for a perfect life is universal. Yet, one of the things we are reminded of on a regular basis is that our lives are far from perfect. We don’t always get what we want. We have hopes and dreams that go unfulfilled. Things regularly mess up our best laid plans. We rarely make it through a day without facing some sort of trouble or difficulty. We our reminded often and in various ways that we live in a broken world. But if we are looking for heaven here and now, then our unfulfilled desires, ruined plans, and everyday difficulties leave us constantly discontent. We easily respond in complaining, anger, or envy as the perfect life we want seems to always be just out of our reach. So often our discontent is rooted in expecting heaven here and now. The Bible teaches us to expect troubles in the present and perfection in the future. In other words, the Bible tells us to not look for heaven now, but to expect it in the future. And when we know that the future will be perfect, we can live with contentment in midst of an imperfect life here and now.

Kyle Kauffman | July 7 2024

Suffering. It’s the one thing we all wish that we could avoid. And yet it is the one thing that every single one of us will face in this life. The amount of suffering we face will vary, but no one makes it through this life without suffering. Whether it is loss, physical pain, mental and emotional pain, or a combination of all of them, everyone suffers. The hope of heaven does not alleviate suffering in this world, but it can transform how we think about suffering, how we face suffering, and how we have hope in suffering. Conversely, suffering can change how we think about heaven, increase our longing for heaven, and help us to live our lives focused on heaven. The Bible is a book full of people who suffered just as we suffer, but the Bible also points us to the hope we have that is able to sustain us through our all suffering in this life.

Kyle Kauffman | June 30 2024

What we believe about forever will shape how we use our money (and other resources) in the present. Or to put it another way, how we use our money will reveal what we truly believe about the future. If we believe this life is all there is then we will use our money to get as much as we possibly can out of this life. But if we truly believe that this life is short and heaven and hell are forever, then we will look for ways to use our money to make an eternal difference. Our use of money (how we spend it and save it) will reveal whether we are living for here and now or whether we are living for eternity. The more we set our hopes on the future God has promised to us, the more gladly we will give away our money in the present to invest in that future. Either our money will reveal we are living to gain all we can here and now, or that we are living to gain heaven and all that God promises to us.

Joel Wood | June 23 2024

One of the main things we are called to do as Jesus’ followers is to love other people in this life. We are to love others just as Jesus has loved us. We are to love other people by helping to meet both physical and spiritual needs. And yet to love others in the present will also require making sacrifices in the present. True love always requires a willingness to sacrifice something for the sake of another. This is where we find that Heaven and the future hope we are promised from God guides and empowers us to sacrifice much in the present in order to love others. Forever reminds us that we should care about both physical needs and spiritual needs. Forever reminds us that our acts of love in the present have eternal significance. And forever gives us the motivation to sacrifice much in the present in order to love others, knowing that every sacrifice will prove to be worth it.

Kyle Kauffman | June 16 2024

The future we are promised is meant to shape our lives in the present. One of the ways our future should shape the present is in motivating us to grow in holiness/Christlikeness. When we know that heaven is our true home it means we should be okay with living as foreigners in this world. When we know that one day, we will be perfectly holy, it should lead us to pursue holiness in our lives today. If we are going to spend forever with Christ, then it should lead us to live for Christ right now. Paul was a man who was consumed with thoughts of heaven, and as a result he was a man who was radically transformed in the present. We find in Paul’s words in Philippians 3:12-21 four ways that forever impacts how we live in the present.

Kyle Kauffman | June 9 2024

We tend to spend more time focusing on “how” things will end in this life then we spend focusing on what will come afterwards. We often talk about the end times and how it we believe everything will end more than we actually talk about heaven and what comes after the “end.” What do you believe heaven will be like? What types of images and descriptions come to your mind as you think about heaven? While the descriptions of heaven we find in the Bible leave a lot to the imagination, they also give us some really important details that help us to imagine heaven. We find one picture of Heaven in Revelation 21-22. The picture we find is incredible! And the more we both understand and meditate on this future, the more we will find it having an impact on our present.

Kyle Kauffman | Jun 2 2024

You are going to live forever. Let that sink in for a moment. Forever is where you are headed. Your life will not end the moment you stop breathing in on this earth. Rather, you will go on living forever after you die here and now. Many people are vague on whether or not forever exists. They may hope there is some sort of afterlife, and yet they are unsure if there really is. And yet many people are “sure” that if there is an afterlife then it must be good for everyone. Meanwhile many Christians believe they are going to live forever and yet we can spend so little time thinking about forever and what difference it makes for right now. The Bible is clear that we are going to live forever. It is also clear that there are two eternal destinies: Heaven and Hell. And there is only one person who can change our eternal destiny. As we look to Jesus, we discover that the future is certain and we discover that we can know our future for certain. And we are challenged to live with that future in view.

Kyle Kauffman | May 19 2024

What does a life well-lived look like? That’s a question we all ask in some way. We know we only have one life to live and so we don’t want to waste our lives. In the midst of all the challenges, pressures, and temptations it can become easy to coast, drift, or just fail to consider the direction of our lives. Hebrews 13 puts before our eyes a vision of what a life well-lived looks like. The author of Hebrews has spent 12 chapters laying out what make Jesus better than anything or anyone else in this life. Based on all of this he concludes in Hebrews 13 by telling us a life well-lived is a life that seeks to please God by following Jesus. The author shows us in practical detail what this life looks like while reminding us that this life is only possible through God’s grace.

Brandon Fisher | May 12 2024

Think of a time where you ran a race in your life (or where you set out to do something else that was challenging). Why did you run that race? What did you experience during the race? What kept you going when things got difficulty? What was it like to get to the finish line? The Christian Life can be compared to a race that we run through this life and this world. The race is not easy, but it is worth it. This is what the author of Hebrews is teaching us in Hebrews 12:1-29. He’s like a coach who is on the side cheering us on and yelling, “Keep going!” Endurance in the Christian race can be challenging for all sorts of reasons, but in the end, we will find that if we keep going it will all be worth it.

Kyle Kauffman | May 5 2024

Faith is fueled by the promise of a better reward. As a result, faith is willing to give up all the “rewards” of this world. Faith knows that all this world offers to is only temporary and fading. But all that God promises to us is eternal and imperishable. In other words, faith operates with a whole different value system. It believes that God and all he promises to us is better than this world and all its fleeting praise, pleasure, and comfort. As a result, faith is willing to endure hardship and suffering in life. Faith believes there is something better that is worthy experiencing suffering and hardship to gain.

Kyle Kauffman | Apr. 28 2024

Christians are called to live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). And yet can also be accused of having blind faith in this life. The reality is that everyone lives by faith in certain areas of their lives. In our own time, the words, “You just need to believe” are a common refrain. And often the object of that belief is simply ourselves. The Christian puts his or her faith in a far greater object then self or any other human. We put our faith in the God who created this world and his Word. As a result, we live our lives seeking to gain what he has promised to us. We are willing to give up things this world values because we value the reward God offers more. In this way faith may look foolish in the eyes of the world, but faith is living for what can never be found in this world.

Kyle Kauffman | Apr. 21 2024

How can I be sure? That’s a question we might ask in all sorts of areas in our lives. And yet there may be no more important place we ask this then when we ask, “How can I be sure I am saved?” Or “How can I be sure I will remain a Christian?” A lack of assurance can be a terrible thing to endure. A false sense of assurance can lead to terrible consequences. But a true assurance of salvation is a wonderful thing to have. And it’s something God wants us to have. We should not base our assurance on our own feelings, a previous prayer, or a powerful conversion story. Neither should we dissolve into endless self-reflection that may cause us to doubt our salvation. In Hebrews 10:19-39 we find God gives us a better way to find and hold onto an assurance of salvation. He gives us the place to look for assurance, a practice to maintain assurance, a problem that can (and should) undermine our assurance, and proof that can help our assurance.

Joel Wlld | Apr. 7 2024

It’s easy for us to overlook the ascension of Jesus back to Heaven. In fact, it is often the event of Jesus’ life that gets the least amount of focus. We hear Jesus’ words, “It is to your advantage that I go away” and are left dumfounded and confused. Wouldn’t it have been better if He stayed here on this earth and lived among us right now? Wouldn’t most of our personal and global struggles be eliminated if He was still here? In answering those questions and the bigger question of “What if Jesus didn’t ascend back to heaven?” we discover that Jesus’ ascension has life-changing implications for our lives both now and in the future. The truth and reality is, it is good news for us that Jesus ascended back to heaven forty days after He rose from the dead.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar. 31 2024

Most historians agree that a man named Jesus lived in the first century and died by crucifixion at the hands of the Roman Empire. Yet many believe this was the end of the story of Jesus. What if this really was the end of story? What if Jesus remained in the grave and he was never truly raised back to life like the gospels say he was? We often take for granted that Jesus rose back to life because we’ve heard the Easter Story so frequently. But we can push our hearts and minds to consider just how significant this event was and is by dwelling on the question: “What if Jesus Wasn’t Raised from the Dead?” We find Paul playing out this exact scenario in 1 Corinthians 15 as he details what it would mean for us if Jesus’ death was the end of the story. Thankfully, Paul points to good reasons we have to believe that Jesus really was risen from the dead. And It’s because this event really did happen that our lives can truly be changed by Jesus.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar. 24 2024

How can someone who has done something wrong be made right again? How can our wrongs be atoned for? We can be prone to both minimize our own sinfulness and presume that we deserve forgiveness for whatever sins we have committed. The sacrifices in the Bible consistently make clear that our sin is a far bigger deal then we realize and that we deserve punishment, not forgiveness. And yet the sacrifices in the Bible also tell us that God makes a way for our sins to be forgiven. Our sins are not forgiven through good deeds, penance, time, or any other means. They are forgiven only through the shedding of blood. Hebrews directs our eyes to Jesus as the greatest sacrifice (and the one that ALL the other sacrifices were pointing to). His one sacrifice is sufficient to forgive all our sins and to fully make right what sin has made wrong.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar. 17 2024

Relationships can be very fragile. They can easily be fractured and broken in all sorts of ways. And when a relationship is fractured, we often look for a way for the relationship to be fixed/restored. We were created to enjoy a relationship with God. But that relationship has been fractured because of sin. And yet we find there is no way for us to fix or mend this broken relationship. If we are to know and enjoy God, then we need God to act to restore the relationship. We find in Scripture that time and time again God has acted to restore and maintain His relationship with Humans. He does this on the basis of covenant. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is at the center of the final and better covenant that all the other covenants pointed toward. Hebrews tells us we relate to God on the basis of Jesus. Which means that as long as we are trusting in Jesus we cannot be separated from God. And all other ways of seeking to secure or maintain a relationship with God are futile.

Joel Wood | Mar. 10 2024

It’s easy to trust God when the seas of our life are calm. When things are going the way we want them to, circumstances are good, and there’s no really big trials we are facing, trust in God seems to come naturally. But when suffering, temptation, and trials start to blow and rage against us, it can be hard to continue to trust God in the midst of them. It seems much easier in these moments to start to doubt God’s love or to live in constant fear then to trust him. This was a struggle for the Hebrews in the midst of their circumstances, and it’s often our struggle as well. In the midst of all the ‘waves’ that come our way in this life we need an anchor we can look to that will hold us through the storm and enable us to continue trusting God when life is painful, hard, or just doesn’t make sense.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar. 3 2024

One of the things that we notice as we read Hebrews is that it is not only full of descriptions of how Jesus is Better, but it is also interspersed with serious warnings about turning away from Jesus. While these warnings are contained throughout the book, perhaps nowhere is the warning and what’s at stake clearer then in Hebrews 5:11-6:12. The purpose and effect of this warning can often get lost in the midst of the debate between whether someone can lose their salvation or not. The warning was originally addressed to those who called themselves Christians. This warning makes it clear that apostasy (turning away from and denying the faith) is a real possibility and reality. While the Bible teaches that those who are truly saved will not lose their salvation because God will hold onto them and enable them to persevere, warnings like this also teach that there are some who will appear to be truly saved to us who will turn away and deny the faith. In God’s hands, serious warnings are a means of His grace that are meant to help us persevere in our faith and not turn away from what is Better – Jesus and all he promises to us.

Kyle Kauffman | Feb. 25 2024

In Hebrews 4:14-5:10 we see Jesus described as a Perfect Priest. While the original readers of Hebrews would have understood their need for a priest, the idea of a priest likely seems foreign to us today. And yet we still look to people to play the role of a priest in our lives. We look to others who will listen to us, understand us, advocate for us, and help to solve our problems. In our day perhaps the people we most often look to as our priests are counselors and therapists. We go to counselors to have them listen to us, offer help to us, and help provide solutions to the problems in our lives. But what we need is not just a counselor or therapist, we need a Priest. Hebrews 4:14-5:10 tells us why we still need a Priest today and why Jesus is the Perfect Priest.

Kyle Kauffman | Feb. 18 2024

Israel had some great leaders throughout their history, including especially Moses and Joshua. And yet the author of Hebrews wanted both them and us to see how much of a better leader Jesus is. We often choose what leaders we will trust and follow based on who they are, what they’ve done, and the promises/hope they offer for the future. But we find that all of our leaders in this life end up letting us down sooner or later. They turn out to be flawed just like us and they often fail to deliver on their promises. Hebrews shows us that Jesus is a better leader than any other leader we may trust and follow. And as a result, we must take care to listen to him, trust him, and give our lives to follow him.

Kyle Kauffman | Feb. 11 2024

We were made to worship. It’s impossible for us not to worship. Whatever we give our mind’s attention to and our heart’s affection to is what we worship. And there are all sorts of things in this life that compete for our attention and our affection. We can easily end up worshipping the wrong things. So many of thing things in our lives aren’t worthy of our worship. They only end up letting us down in the long run and distracting us from the one who is truly worthy of our worship. It may seem odd to us, but the Hebrews were tempted to worship angels above Jesus. But usually this is how it works: it’s easier for us to see the folly of what someone else is worshipping then it is to see the folly of the things we are prone to worship. Hebrews 1:5-2:4 wants to shift our attention back to the main attraction in the entire universe: Jesus Christ; and to see that only he is truly worthy of our worship.

Joel Wood | Feb. 4 2024

When presented with different options, we all want to choose what is better. In many ways our lives are one long exercise in trying to choose what is better. Whether it’s what we do with our time, with our money, or with our energy, we are always trying to figure out what is better so that we might give our lives to what pursuing what is better. There are so many voices that give competing ideas of what is better. And these voices can often seek to convince us that there is something better in this life then Jesus. We can start to wonder if trusting Jesus is really worth it…especially when life gets really difficult. We can start to wonder if following Jesus is really worth it… especially when following Him proves costly. Is Jesus really worth putting our trust in and giving our lives to OR is there something better than Jesus? This is a question the people that the book of Hebrews was written to seem to be wrestling with. Life is starting to look and feel like it would be easier if they compromised their belief in Jesus in some way. And so, the author of Hebrews writes them a letter (a sermon) reminding them in all sorts of ways that Jesus is Better! And as he does he encourages and warns followers of Jesus to keep going in their faith and obedience to Jesus because they will find in the end that he really is worth it. The author begins this great sermon by reminding his readers that God’s Voice is more important than anyone else’s and that Jesus is the best Word God has spoken.

Kyle Kauffman | Jan. 28 2024

It’s easy for the church as a whole and us as individuals to drift in the direction of an inward focus. There are so many needs within the church that we can spend all of our time simply focused on meeting them. But God has given us a mission, and that mission requires us moving out. Moving outward with a welcoming mindset towards those outside the church is uncomfortable and challenging. And yet as we move outward, we do so in the love of Christ, by the power of Christ, with faith in the promises of Christ. As part of God’s family, we can all take steps to move outward and extend welcoming arms toward others in hope that God will use us as a part of welcoming them into his family as well.

Kyle Kauffman | Jan 21 2024

The tendency in our modern world is to either see children as a burden (keeping us from our dreams) or to see children as an idol (having our dreams wrapped up in them). Children can be seen as an inconvenience or distraction getting in the way of what really matters. God shows his value for children in the fact that He himself became a child. Jesus then demonstrated that children are a gift by welcoming them into his life. We have a God who loves children and welcomes children to himself. The church can and should also look for ways to love and welcome children into our lives in an effort to point them to the God who loves them and wants them to be a part of his family.

Kyle Kauffman | Jan. 14 2024

It is so easy for us to view our homes as our own private refuges and fortresses. They can quickly become the places where we seek to escape the burdens of other people. What would it instead look like if we saw our homes as welcome centers: places where we could invite others in so that we could get to know them and encourage them? What if, ‘Do you want to come over for dinner?’ was a common invitation in our church? What if it was expected that we will regularly sit around a table with others in our church?. What effect might this have on the church? What effect might this have on others looking in on the church? How might God use that?

Kyle Kauffman | Jan. 7 2024

The church is meant to be a community that looks and feels different then the world outside of it. The church is meant to be a place where people feel known and seen, loved and valued. We are called to put on display in our culture what we believe in our doctrine. Therefore, if we truly believe God is a welcoming God then we should seek to be a welcoming place and people as the church. However, this does not happen by accident. It happens as God’s grace changes us and motivates us to do the challenging work of welcoming others in. The gospel not only gives us the model for how we are to welcome one another as a church, but it also helps to overcome the fears and desires that would prevent us from being a welcoming people.

Brandon Fisher | Dec. 31 2023

Welcome is a metaphor for the gospel. Hospitality is central to God’s Heart. The Bible is a story of a God who displays his glory and grace by pursuing the people who have spurned Him in order to welcome them back into His family. This is perhaps displayed nowhere more clearly than in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We see that all of us have spurned God and deserve to be shunned/abandoned by Him. But we find in this story that God welcomes us not on the basis of our merit, but on the basis of His grace and mercy. We find that God goes above and beyond to welcome us back into His family. We find that it brings God pleasure to display His glory by welcoming people into his family. And we find that understanding how great God’s welcome is of us should lead us to be welcoming people.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec 24. 2023

Christmas is often a season of great joy. There are all sorts of reasons we make look forward to Christmas, be excited about Christmas, or be happy at Christmas. Yet so much joy at Christmas (and in all of life) is surfacy, shallow, and hollow. This doesn’t mean that it’s bad, it just means that the joy can so easily be taken away. We were not meant for a joy that is simply found in the good things of this world. Rather our hearts were created to find joy in knowing the one who made the world. We find that the real reason for joy at Christmas is because Christmas makes it possible for us to know God. God offers us a type of weighty joy that can only be found in knowing him. So when other sources of joy fade or crumble, our joy in knowing God an remain firm.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec. 17 2023

In our lives the temptation to seek comfort in this world and apart from Gid is great. Our lives can so easily become all about finding and keeping comfort. We end up trying to avoid all that is uncomfortable even when we know God is calling us to give up our comfort. Christmas can so easily just become another season where we look for comfort in what this world offers rather than in God. In Christmas, we find a Savior who choose to give up all his comfort in order to become a man to rescue us and reunite us with God. As a result, we can now find comfort in God that is not temporary or simply circumstantial. Rather it’s actually when our lives become most uncomfortable that Jesus becomes our greatest comfort. And as we find our comfort in him, we are then called to give up the comforts of this life for His cause in this world.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec 10 2023

We all have a tendency to put ourselves first. We our prone to prioritize our own desires, interests, honor, and recognition. We seek to look out for ourselves more than we do for others. We seek to climb the ladder and get ahead of others. We look for ways that we can serve ourselves (or that others can serve us) rather than how we can serve others. At Christmas God shows us that he is a God who came to serve not to be served. He shows us he is a God who prizes and exalts humility. He shows us he is a God who prioritizes going down and giving up for the sake of others. Because this is who God is he calls us to prioritize going down and giving up for the sake of others.

Joel Wood | Dec 3 2023

When it comes to knowing the truth, it is inevitable that we will disagree with others and find ourselves in situations where we feel like we need to speak up about what we believe is true. This may be with fellow Christians where we disagree on some truth or it may be in conversations with those who don’t know Christ where we disagree about what is ultimately true. We are not meant to run from disagreements or to avoid those who we disagree with. Rather healthy disagreement and debate is one of the ways that God uses to help us grow in the truth. We live in a world where we tend to avoid those who think differently than us or seek to shame them and yell them down. But we are meant to engage with one another and not avoid disagreements over the truth while doing it all with love and humility.