These are sermons delivered during the Sunday morning worship services of Keystone Church, an Evangelical Free Church in Paradise, PA, USA. Please visit www.keystonechurch.org for more information.
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.