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Kyle Kauffman 2/2/25 Kyle Kauffman 2/2/25

Band of Brothers & Sisters

Kyle Kauffman

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.

Galatians 6:1-10

Joel Wood 1/26/25 Joel Wood 1/26/25

Turn and Fight

Joel Wood

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.

Romans 7; Romans 8:1-13; Matthew 5:27-30

Kyle Kauffman 1/19/25 Kyle Kauffman 1/19/25

Let a Little Light In

Kyle Kauffman

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.

1 John 1:5-10

Kyle Kauffman 1/12/25 Kyle Kauffman 1/12/25

The Freedom to Be Honest

Kyle Kauffman

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.

Galatians 2:15-21

Josh Stalnaker 12/29/24 Josh Stalnaker 12/29/24

The Importance of Relationships

Josh Stalnaker

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.

John 1:35-51

Kyle Kauffman 1/27/24 Kyle Kauffman 1/27/24

Welcoming the Stranger

Kyle Kauffman

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.

Luke 6:32-36

Kyle Kauffman 1/20/24 Kyle Kauffman 1/20/24

Welcoming the Children

Kyle Kauffman

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.

Mark 10:13-16

Kyle Kauffman 1/13/24 Kyle Kauffman 1/13/24

The Welcoming Home

Kyle Kauffman

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?

1 Peter 4:7-11

Kyle Kauffman 1/4/24 Kyle Kauffman 1/4/24

The Welcoming Church

Kyle Kauffman

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.

James 2:1-13

Joel Wood 10/28/23 Joel Wood 10/28/23

We Fight Together

Joel Wood

One of the storylines we can find traced throughout the Bible is that there is a cosmic, unseen, spiritual war that is happening throughout history. It is not simply a war of good vs. evil or of two equally competing powers. Rather it is a war between God and Satan. It is a war that Satan started when he attempted to take God’s place and yet it was a war that was futile from the start. God has decisively won this war at the cross through Jesus’ death and resurrection. We know because of Jesus the war ends with Satan’s defeat. But until that final ending there are still battles that rage on. As a result, we find ourselves in the middle of this war. We find ourselves engaged with an enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy our faith and the life we have in Christ. And yet we find ourselves with resources that far outweigh our enemy’s ability to harm us. We are meant to fight together by exercising the weapons God has given us as we rely on him till the day when the war is finally over.

Ephesians 6:10-24