The month of November tends to spark a heart of gratitude and generosity in people as they look forward to gathering with family and friends and the celebrations of the season. For the month of November, we’re going to talk about the topic of absurd generosity from the gospel of Luke. This week’s passage in Luke 12 is not a parable about Monopoly; it's a parable about greed. In this parable Jesus exposes the tendency we all have to fall into greed and away from generous living. Jesus makes a compelling case for how destructive the love of money can be in our lives. He exposes the pull that greed has on our lives and teaches us how to live in the exact opposite of greed. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches how greed will cripple a generous heart.
A college student was taking a test and asked God to help him on the test. When he got his grade back he realized he failed the test. It begs the question: “Did God help him on the test or not?” We all have times in our life when it feels like God hasn’t answered our prayers and times when we see God answer them beyond our wildest dreams. As James closes his letter to the early church he encourages them to keep praying in all situations. As an example, James reminds us of the power of prayer from the life of Elijah the prophet. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches on James 5:13-20.
Earlier this year the President of North Macedonia stepped in to protect the rights of an 11-year-old girl who was being bullied. In doing so, he taught us how to treat people. As we move into James 5, James teaches the early church how to treat people. It seems that some people were oppressing the poor and not paying them a fair wage. James condemns that behavior and writes a passionate appeal to the church to be patient while they wait for the return of the Lord. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches from James 5:1-12 about how to wait on the Lord and treat people well.
James starts chapter 4 by talking about the war with our personal desires. He addresses how our selfish desires put us in wrong relationship with others and with God. This self-centeredness can lead to fights and quarrels among believers in the local church. However, when we replace selfishness with submission, we get different results. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches that when we submit to God, goodness will follow.
As we move into the second half of the book of James, the theme of teaching from James 3:1 continues through a presentation on wisdom. In this week’s passage, James contrasts worldly wisdom with godly wisdom. Worldly wisdom looks slick and polished while godly wisdom is full of godly characteristics that impact a generation for Christ. James teaches us that wisdom is made evident by our actions. Join us as we take a closer look at this passage and learn how we can live out godly wisdom while living in the world.
James is an intensely practical letter. In this section, he takes aim at an area in which many of us fall short—the use of our tongues. The human capacity to communicate reflects our God-likeness. It is a remarkable ability. Unfortunately, too often we don’t use this ability for its God-designed purpose—to offer encouragement, support, love, and protection. As these verses make clear, the way in which we use our tongue says a great deal about our spiritual maturity, for the simple reason that our tongues ultimately reflect the condition of our heart. Listen in as Pastor Doug Meye teaches us how our dangerous tongues are transformed by the work of God's Spirit in our heart.
James was a foundational leader in the early Church known for peacemaking. In the book that bears his name, his goal isn’t to teach new theological information but to get in our business and change how we live our lives. In today's passage, James is going to teach us that if our faith is genuine, it’s alive and active in every aspect of our lives. For us to better understand what genuine faith looks like, James compares it to both intellectually based faith (which has no substance) and emotionally driven faith (which has no action). Finally, we learn from two examples in the Old Testament about having a dynamic faith. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches on James 2:14-26.
Proverbs 29:18 says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV). Vision can be defined as “the state to be able to see or the ability to plan for the future with imagination or wisdom.” At Coastline we like to take one Sunday a year to specifically focus on the vision of our church. This vision is a big dream that requires us to trust in a big God and work together in unity. None of us can accomplish it alone - it requires each of us to play a unique role in God’s kingdom for God’s glory. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches from Luke 15 and shares our new vision.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, was a leader in the early church. He was known for his compassion, leadership, and influence over the early church. In this letter he writes very practical ways to live out their faith. In James 2 we have a long example of why we are to treat everyone the same in Christ. Another way to say it is that we are not invited to show favoritism to anyone. In this time period, Jewish people coveted recognition and honor from others. It was typical to give a better seat to the wealthy people in the church. James wasn’t going to allow culture to influence the teaching of Jesus. Listen in as Pastor Neal Benson teaches on James 2:1-13. We learn the gospel changes how we see, treat, and care for people.
In week two of the James sermon series we're going to take a deeper look into how we should approach God’s word. Why does James speak about our conduct? How does he tell us to receive God’s word? What might we be missing in our personal time of devotion in God’s word? As we seek to answer these questions, we'll see that there is a difference between receiving instruction and applying instruction. The genuineness of our faith is evident in how we apply God's word and instruction in our lives. Listen in as Blaze McEntee explains that the way we live isn't what determines our salvation; instead, our salvation should determine how we live.