Keystone Church | Paradise Sermons

Kyle Kauffman | June 1 2025It is often said that defense wins championships. In Acts 15 we also discover that defense preserves the gospel and the mission of the church. In Acts 15 we read about one of the first major threats to the gospel. It is inevitable that the true gospel will be threatened through addition, subtraction, or simply assumption. Often these threats come from within the church rather than outside the church. We must be prepared to recognize threats to the gospel and to defend and preserve the truth gospel of grace. If we lose the message that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then we no longer have a mission that is worth pursuing. But if we hold fast to this true gospel that has been passed onto us and remain unified around it, then we have every reason to continue in the mission to spread this gospel to others.

Joel Wood | May 25 2025It's easy for us to give up on being a part of God's mission in this world. Perhaps that's because we feel ill-equipped to be part of God's mission. Perhaps that's because we have faced opposition or apathy from others when we have tried to tell them about Jesus. Perhaps it's because the difficulty and suffering of our lives has left us feeling like we can no longer take part in God's mission. Whatever it may be, there will always be reasons for us to “give up” on the mission of making disciples. Acts 14 gives us a window into why perseverance is required and how God enables us to persevere in the mission.

Kyle Kauffman | May 18 2025God intends for all Christians to live with a sense of being sent into the world with the gospel. But God also calls the church to send out those who he specifically calls to go across geographic and cultural boundaries with the gospel. In Acts 13 we get a window into the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. We discover that God's plan to reach the world with the gospel involves using missionaries to advance the gospel in places where it has not been heard before. In this chapter we see not only what is involved in this missionary endeavor, but also what it looks like for us to live with an awareness of being sent by God in our own individual lives.

Kyle Kauffman | May 11 2025 There are areas in our lives or the lives of others that may look or feel hopeless to us on the surface. We may struggle to believe that change is really possible or that things will ever get better. In Acts 12 we read of a time when things may have looked and felt hopeless to the early Christians in Jerusalem. We find God intervening in a powerful and amazing way to bring change. This story can help us in whatever areas we may struggle with hopelessness today by helping us to see that God hears and answers the prayers of his people. And it can help us to see that even when things may feel hopeless to us, God is still good and he can still be trusted.

Kyle Kauffman | May 4 2025 God's mission of making disciples is global. We can see this in the book of Acts. The gospel is spreading all across the known world throughout this book. And sometimes we can become so focused on the Big Names in the book of Acts that we forget God's mission in Acts involved far more people than Peter, Paul, and Philip. Because God's mission is so BIG, it's easy for us to lose or forget what role the local church (and every member in the church) plays in this mission. In Acts 11:19-30 we get a good glimpse into how God intends to use the local church (and every member of the church) as part of the plan to make disciples. As we discover how God used the local church in Antioch to make a big difference, we might be encouraged to hope that God will use the local church in Paradise to make a big difference as well.

Keith Rohrer | Apr 27 2025 Jesus is not just for one group of people, one type of people, or one country of people. Jesus is the offered Savior for ALL people. In order to save all kinds of people from everywhere and anywhere, God uses people just like us. Regular people. But regular people all have flaws, some of which can be obstacles to God using us for this great work. If He first needs to do some Holy Spirit surgery in us, will it be welcomed, or refused? How we answer that question may depend on our answer to this one: How important is God's mission? And maybe also to this one: How important is it that God use me for His mission?

Kyle Kauffman Apr 20 2025It's easy to end up with a watered down, domesticated, tame version of Jesus. Whether that is because of our own assumptions about Jesus, all the different things we have heard about him, or the ways we have simply grown accustomed to Jesus over the years. Jesus can quickly just become a background part of our lives. But the actual Jesus, who rose from the dead and is alive today is anything but tame or domesticated. In Acts 9:1-40, we see several glimpses of who Jesus is and what he does in our lives today. And we find that just as Paul's life was turned upside down by truly coming to know who Jesus is, so too our lives can be transformed by a true understanding of who Jesus is.

Kyle Kauffman | Apr 13 2025 It's easier for us to speak about the advancement of the gospel then to actually steps in advancing the gospel. We can all too easily seek comfort in the truth that God will advance the gospel in this world without being challenged by the truth that God wants you to be a part of advancing the gospel in this world. God sends disciples to go out with the message of the gospel and be a part of the spread of the gospel. In Acts 8 we see God using Philip to advance the gospel to the Samaritans and an Ethiopian. As we look together at the story of this early disciple and how God used him to spread the gospel we should be challenged to ask whether our own lives are also being lived in seeking to spread the gospel in our world today.

Kyle Kauffman | Apr 6th 2025The history of the church is bloody because the history of the church is full of suffering and persecution. While many people identify Stephen as the first martyr, in many ways he simply displays what was often true throughout the Old Testament: God's people will be persecuted even to the point of death. Jesus told his disciples to expect that people would treat them the same way they treated him. We should never forget that being a disciple of Jesus throughout history has often meant that you will face persecution. And while the story of Stephen should sober us who live in the West and know very little of this persecution, it should also fill us with hope and fortify us for the day when we may face more severe persecution for our faith. Because in the story of Stephen we find that God rules over the suffering of his saints, uses it to advance the gospel, and reveals the prize that no persecution can ever destroy.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar 30 2025Who we fear will shape how we live, what we say and don't say, and ultimately who we seek to serve and please. The Bible consistently warns against the fear of man in our lives and calls us instead to fear God. We know that fear of many can lead to all sorts of problems in our lives, but sometimes it can feel impossible to fear God instead of man. Fear of man is one of the greatest things that can get in the way of obeying God as we seek to be a part of his mission and make disciples. And on the flip side, fear of God can be one of the greatest sources of help and strength in obeying god. 5:1-42 gives a very powerful picture into the danger of fearing man and the freedom of fearing God. And along the way it gives us reasons why we should place our fear in God and not in man.

Joel Wood | Mar 23 2025 We all have a desire to be bold and proclaim our faith in Jesus without fear or reservation. And yet we also all likely struggle with fear and can lack boldness many times in our lives. One of the reasons we struggle with fear is because we know that people will reject, resist, or even oppose the gospel as it is preached. This rejection, resistance, and opposition is often aimed at the lives of the disciples who proclaim Jesus and what he's done. But it is the same Jesus who is opposed by many who is able to fill his disciples with boldness. We get a glimpse into this in Acts 4:1-31 as the disciples face opposition for the first time. We can see not only the boldness they demonstrated but we can also see what might enable us to live with a similar type of boldness today.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar 16 2025 We know that Jesus performed miracles when he was here on this earth, but does he still perform miracles today? In the book of Acts we find Jesus performing miracles through his disciples, but should we expect him to do the same thing today? While we may not see or experience the same miracles we see in the book of Acts, we believe Jesus is still at work in this world working wonders in and through his disciples. God continues to supply and use faith in Jesus Christ to accomplish great things through Jesus' disciples. And it's not ultimately the faith or the wonders that are meant to occupy our attention, but rather the One who is behind all the wonders, the one who our faith rests in, that should occupy our attention and worship. It's through faith in Jesus that we not only experience wonders in this world, but also eagerly anticipate a wonderful future no matter what may happen in this world.

Kyle Kauffman | Mar 9 2025If you ask someone to do something, hopeful you also give them to the tools they need to do it. When Jesus calls his followers to be his witnesses, he gives them the POWER they need to carry out this calling. More specifically he gives them the PERSON they need to carry out this calling. In Acts 2:1-41 we are told the story of the Holy Spirit's arrival at Pentecost and provided the impact He makes in the lives of the disciples and the 3000 people who came to faith in Jesus that day. That same POWER and PERSON that was given to the disciples 2000 years ago is present and available to every follower of Jesus today to empower our lives, embolden our witness, and transform hearts through the gospel.

Joel Wood | Mar 2 2025 If you ask someone to do something, hopeful you also give them to the tools they need to do it. When Jesus calls his followers to be his witnesses, he gives them the power they need to carry out this calling. More specifically he gives them the person they need to carry out this calling. In Acts 2:1-41 we are told the story of the Holy Spirit's arrival at Pentecost. In this story we discover the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, the sealing promise of the Holy Spirit, the ordinary working of the Holy Spirit, and the universal offer of the Holy Spirit.

Joel Wood | Feb 23 2025When a significant event happens, we often look to people who can act as witnesses of that event. Witnesses are those who testify to what they have seen or heard. Jesus calls his disciples to act as his witnesses to tell others of what they have seen and heard Jesus say and do. This is the primary task Jesus calls disciples to. He calls them to be his witnesses in this world especially as it relates to his resurrection. We discover this is one of the very reasons why Jesus called and chose his first twelve disciples: so that they could act as his witnesses. But Jesus does not expect disciples to carry out this task in their own strength or power. He promises to provide his Holy Spirit to empower and equipe them as his witnesses. The same things remain true for us today as Jesus' followers. We are called to be his witnesses in this world and to look to the Holy Spirit for strength and power to carry out this task.

Brandon Fisher | Feb 16 2025 Introduce the book of Acts by looking back to the events that led up to the beginning of Acts – In particular the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Talk about Luke being the Author of Acts and address Why He wrote the book of Acts. Especially focus in on the idea of being a disciple means we follow a Risen Savior and Ascended/Ruling Lord. The Book of Acts, and the actions of Jesus' disciples in this book, only make sense in light of those two realities.

Kyle Kauffman | Feb 9 2025Being honest not only means being honest about our own sin, but it also means being honest about the sin of others in the church. The only thing harder than confessing our own sin may be confronting the sin of someone else. This is a hard thing to do, but it's something we must be willing to do if we truly love each other. The church is meant to be a place that takes sin seriously because we are serious about loving each other and serious about God's glory. This means we should be prepared to confront the sin of one another when that sin either goes unrecognized or unrepented of. The gospel uniquely prepares us to confront other people with humility, grace, and boldness. And we all need other people who are willing to do that in our lives when it is needed.

Kyle Kauffman | Feb 2 2025 Are you someone who other people would want to confess their sins to? Are you prepared to receive someone else's confession and respond with grace? Is keystone a church where people could confess any sin? It's a risky thing for someone else to confess their sins and so we should seek to be people who know how to respond well when this happens. If we want to create a gospel culture where people feel it's okay to confess sin, then we must be people who are safe enough and strong enough to be able to receive and respond to other people as they confess their sin. Galatians 6:1-5 helps us to be prepared to be exactly these type of people as God calls us to bear the burdens of one another.

Joel Wood | Jan 26 2025 There is a danger that we would treat confession as an end in and of itself. This is especially true in our time that prizes “authenticity” above all else. We want to be authentic and honest about our sin, but that is not the end goal for us. Rather, our goal and desire is to grow to be more like Christ and to be authentic in who we are as God's sons and daughters. This means we are meant to fight against sin and pursue holiness. Confession is part of this war, but we must realize it is only one part of it. Confession should never replace fighting sin in our lives. Rather, it should be the starting point from which we continue to fight sin in our lives. This means that when we confess our sins to other people, we are inviting them into the fight with us and seeking allies in our war against sin.

Kyle Kauffman | Jan 19 2026 Sin is like a nocturnal animal. It loves to hide away in the darkness. But the more we hide it away, the more sin tends to thrive and grow. It's often only as we bring our sin into the light that it starts to lose its power. This is exactly what John is calling us to do in 1 John 1:5-10. It's why confession to others can actually be a means of God's grace in our lives. Confession acts to bring what was otherwise hidden into the light. This act loosens some of the power of sin and helps us to find support in our fight against sin. John tells us that confession of sin strengthens our relationships with each other in the church and strengthens our grip on the gospel. As we confess our sins we experience real (not fake) fellowship with one another and we experience the felt forgiveness that is ours in Jesus Christ. These things then give us greater power to fight the sin that is in our lives.

Kyle Kauffman | Jan 12 2025 One of the reasons we are prone to fake it and hide away our sin is because we don't really believe the gospel. If we believe the gospel, then it should free us from having to act like we have it altogether or aren't really sinners. The gospel is based on the very fact that we really are sinners who need a savior. The gospel assures us that we are accepted by God despite our sin. As those who are united with Christ, we are fully known and completely loved by our God. When we understand that, we are freed to risk being honest with other people because we don't need their acceptance and approval. And the more honest we are about our sin the more we will have a community that displays what it feels like to be both known and loved by each other.

Kyle Kauffman | Jan 5 2025 Before getting honest with each other, we are meant to get honest with God. It's pointless to start confessing our sins to one another if we have not first confessed our sin to God. Real confession and repentance start with realizing that our sin is first and foremost against God. We also recognize that our sin is not simply bad behavior, but rather a heart that is resistant to God. And we recognize that forgiveness and real change must come from God. So, we approach God with honesty, confessing our sin to him, receiving grace from him, and asking Him to be the one who cleanses us and changes our hearts.

Josh Stalnaker | Dec 29 2024 Everyone craves relationship. the Bible is full of examples of people craving relationship in positive and negative ways. God exists in relationship as the Trinity and has existed like that for all eternity. John 1:35-51 introduces us to some of Jesus' first disciples and how they began following Him. In two instances (Simon Peter and Nathanael) individuals hear about Jesus through relationships they have with others. Not much has changed, people still follow Christ because someone they know introduced them to Jesus. Relationships give us the opportunity to use the craving we have been created with to introduce people to Jesus and to pour into others lives as they grow in the Gospel.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec 22 2024 We all have the desire for a life that is full, satisfying, and complete. But so often we look for life in the wrong places thinking that what we long for can be found somewhere other than God. Jesus came so that we might find life in God. Not simply so that we could treat God as an add-on to our already full lives. The more we come to truly know God the more we find our hearts and lives satisfied in him. Jesus came so that we might truly know God. In Jesus we find a God who is full of glory, full of grace, and full of love. It's as we live to know this this God that we find the fulness of life we are longing for.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec 15 2024Jesus came to this earth, not simply because we need a good example to follow or a good teacher to give us spiritual pep talks. He came to this earth because apart from him we don't really have life. He did not come to this earth simply so that we can have a day off in December, fun traditions, and a reason to give each other presents. If that's all Christmas is, it's just a distraction from reality that makes us forget our terminal condition. Jesus came to this earth to give life to those who are dead. John 1:10-13 exposes our desperate situation, holds out the hope of new life in Christ, and shows us how this new life is received and enjoyed.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec 8 2024 John 1:1-3 introduces us to the “Who” behind Christmas. In one of the most precise, powerful statements in the Bible, John tells us the one who came as a baby at Christmas is the God who created life (and all things) and gives meaning to life and our existence. John reveals that behind and at very center of Christmas stands the God who wants to be Known. This is why He created, this is why He took on human flesh, this is why He still speaks to us today. We find that Christmas supplies answers to some of our most important questions in this life like, “Why am I here? How can I find meaning for my life? Does God exist? If He does, how can I know Him and relate to Him? And so we find that Christmas challenges us to orient our lives completely around knowing this God.

Kyle Kauffman | Dec 1 2024 Light and life are intricately connected. Light is necessary for life to exist. Light enables us to see things as we should. Light exposes what would otherwise remain hidden. Light gives us hope in the face of darkness. When John declares that Jesus is the light, He is saying the exact same thing about Him. There may be all sorts of other places we look for ‘light' in this life. But light that truly brings life, joy, and hope is only found in Jesus. We see our lives differently when we see that Jesus is the light. We walk through life differently when we see Jesus is the light. And we find hope in all the darkness of our lives when we see Jesus is the light. Jesus came at Christmas so that our lives might be connected to and illuminated by Him as our light.

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 2024This 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.