The Coastal Church Podcast

This week we jumped back into our study of the book of Romans. Brett took us to Romans 10 to talk about how God imparts righteousness to us. He taught us that, though passion is essential like the letter’s original Jewish audience, we can often be passionate about the wrong things. We need to be careful not to put pressure on ourselves or others to try and become righteous on our own efforts or think that we can. Righteousness is given by God to those who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in his resurrection power.

In the concluding installment of our sermon series “The Church,” Jason reminded us that our passion as the Church should align with God’s passion. He took us to Matthew 9:35-38 to show us the heart of the Father and how we should respond to it. Jesus wants us to see the crowds, the needs in our community, to pray for them, and to be willing to be the answer to our own prayers. As we pray for God to give us his heart for the people around us, he also reveals to us the ways in which we can be his hands and feet. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

This week we continued our series “The Church” by diving into what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of God. Jason reminded us that the Kingdom of God is not a distant dream, but actually a present reality that we can step into. Part of our mission is to bring the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. What that means for us is that we have to submit to the kingship of Jesus.

In the latest installment of our series called “The Church,” Pastor Jason Parker took us to Ephesians 4:1-16. We talked about the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us in order for us to fulfill our mission as the Church. Ephesians 4 specifically talks about five gifts that are meant to equip the Church. While different people may have different spiritual gifts and see the world in different ways, this passage challenges us to be unified and to use our various gifts to work toward our common goals: building up one another and making disciples.

We are continuing in our sermon series called “The Church.” Pastor Jason Parker reminded us that if we are going to make public impact as God has called us to do, we have to prepare in private. Part of that preparation are trials and battles, and even Jesus was tested in Luke 4 before he began his ministry. The Christian life can often be described as breakthrough followed by battle, followed by breakthrough, followed by battle, and so on. However, God uses those battles to prepare us for the mission he has called us to go on. Those trials make us stronger as we learn to rely on him for our strength.

This week we started a new series called “The Church” where we will be diving into the purpose of the Church and the role that each of us have to play in it. Pastor Jason Parker took us to Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus gave the “Great Commission” telling each of his followers to “go and make disciples.” That mission is actually the main reason for the existence of the Church, which trickles down into our specific mission as Coastal Church to “take Jesus into every community of Southwest Nova.”

This week we dove into Romans 9 with Pastor Brett Laidlaw. Though this can be a loaded and challenging passage, we were reminded that context is key to understanding the main point. Regardless of us, God will accomplish his purposes, but he invites us to come along and partner with him, not because of what we bring to the table, but simply for the joy of relationship. We need to stop trying to do things for God and start doing them with God.

This week we had a great time with guest speaker Mike MacNeil. He taught out of Matthew 8:23-27 and also told some stories from his years of ministry experience. Though we cannot choose what “wind” or “waves” we are up against, we can still choose how we face them. We can choose who we bring along with us on our journey through life, and there’s no one better to have “in the boat” than Jesus.