Your bank statement might be more honest than your testimony. In this message from James 5:1-6, Pastor Greg Rains asks the question most of us avoid: what does your wallet actually say about your heart?

Part of the "Point Blank: Faith That Doesn't Flinch" series through the book of James, this message unpacks a hard warning to anyone living comfortably while losing sight of Kingdom purpose — landing on one line worth remembering: comfort now costs you the Kingdom later.

In this message:
What James 5:1-6 says about hoarded wealth and self-indulgent comfort

A real look at where the average household budget actually goes

Why your biggest investment might be sitting idle instead of serving Kingdom purposes

The difference between owning what God's given you and stewarding it

📖 Text: James 5:1-6 (NLT)

⛪ Series: Point Blank: Faith That Doesn't Flinch

Northview Church exists to love God, love people, and make disciples — Kodak, TN and beyond.

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You think you've got time. You think you've got your sin managed, your relationships fine, your future planned out. James says otherwise.

In this message, we walk through James 4:7-17 and ask the question every one of us needs to answer honestly: What is your life? Not the version you'd post about — the real one. The one that either dies in the grave with you, or carries on to eternity with Christ.

We'll look at three places we quietly settle for less than what God made us for — the sin we've stopped fighting and started managing, the judgment we've dressed up as concern, and the future we're sleepwalking through instead of spending on what actually lasts.

A proud life protects itself. A humbled life spends itself.
If you've ever wondered whether your life actually counts for something bigger than the next thirty years — this one's for you.

📖 Text: James 4:7-17 (NLT)

🏠 Northview Church | Kodak, TN

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Joel Osteen sold 30 million copies telling people God wants to give them their best life now. James chapter 4 has something to say about that.

This week in our Point Blank series, Pastor Greg Rains takes on one of the most uncomfortable passages in the entire book of James — and shows us why chasing the world's version of the good life doesn't just disappoint us. It destroys us. And it makes us enemies of the God who is offering us something better.

Your best life isn't the one you build. It's the one you receive.

📖 James 4:1–6 | Point Blank Series — Week 8

📍 Northview Church | Kodak, Tennessee

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You're not failing. You're not in some obvious spiral. You're showing up, taking care of your family, staying out of trouble — and somehow a whole week goes by and your faith didn't come up once.

James 3 calls that earthly wisdom. And he says it has a source.
In this message from James 3:13-18, we look at two kinds of wisdom — one that contracts your life down to surviving, and one that produces a harvest in the people around you. The difference isn't how hard you're working. It's what's actually fueling you.

This is Week 7 of Point Blank — a study through the book of James at Northview Church in Kodak, Tennessee.

📖 James 3:13-18 | NLT
🎙 Pastor Greg Rains | Northview Church

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

James says otherwise.

In this message from James 3:1–12, we confront the power of the tongue — how words can destroy relationships, wound people made in God’s image, and reveal what’s really happening in the heart.

But the gospel doesn’t just diagnose the problem. It offers transformation.

This sermon explores:

The hidden damage careless words cause
Why the tongue is so difficult to control
The spiritual weight behind gossip, sarcasm, and anger
Jesus as the perfect image of God who took our curse on Himself
How the Spirit transforms mouths that once burned into mouths that heal

Bottom Line:
You can’t bless the Maker and break what He made.

What is the difference between believing in Jesus and surrendering to Jesus?

In this message from James 2:14–26, we look at the kind of faith James says is dead, useless, and unable to save. The demons believe the truth about God — but they are not disciples. Judas had proximity to Jesus, ministry experience, and religious knowledge — but he never truly surrendered.

Real faith is not perfection. Abraham’s life proves that. Real faith is a surrendered direction: acting as if God is who He says He is, even when it costs us.

This message is a direct, pastoral call to examine whether our faith is merely something we claim or something that has truly changed us. The sermon’s central line — “Demons believe. Disciples surrender.” — is repeated throughout the manuscript as the defining contrast between dead faith and surrendered discipleship.

In James 2:1–13, we’re confronted with a difficult question: who really belongs in your church?

This message exposes the subtle ways favoritism shows up in the church—not always through policies, but through reflexes. We move toward people who impress us, overlook people who make us uncomfortable, and sometimes forget that the Lord of glory made room for us when we had nothing to offer.

James calls believers back to the royal law: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And the gospel reminds us why mercy must keep moving—because mercy first moved toward us in Jesus.

Key themes: favoritism in the church, mercy triumphs over judgment, loving your neighbor, James 2, Christian hospitality, making room for the overlooked.

What if the problem isn't that you haven't heard enough? 
What if you've heard plenty — and just keep walking away?

James 1:19-27 is one of the most confrontational passages in 
the New Testament. James doesn't call out pagans or skeptics. 
He calls out church people — people who show up, hear the Word, nod along, and go home unchanged. He has one word for that: self-deception.

In this message from our series Point Blank: Faith That 
Doesn't Flinch, we dig into what it actually takes to let 
the Word of God do what it came to do — and why most of us 
keep walking away from the one mirror that tells us the truth.

The Word that exposes you is the same Word that can save you. 
But only if you don't walk away from what it shows.

You know the list. The culture is too sexualized. The season is too busy. The cost of living is too high. The enemy is too active. There's always a reason why you can't seem to break the cycle — and it always points somewhere other than you.James 1:9–18 doesn't let that stand.This week in our series through the book of James, we get into the anatomy of temptation — how it actually works, where it actually comes from, and why the excuse-making isn't just dishonest. It's costing you something you can't get back.The gospel collision of this passage isn't a moral lecture. It's a single word swap that changes everything. Not I can't. I won't. And the only reason that word is even available to you is because of what God already did.If you've been losing the same battles for years and blaming everything outside yourself — this one is for you.

Nobody told you following Jesus would feel like this.You believed. You trusted. And life didn't get easier — it got harder. Now you're sitting in the middle of a trial you didn't choose, wondering if any of this is actually worth it.James wrote this letter to people asking that exact question. Scattered. Suffering. Holding onto faith with both hands and losing their grip.His answer wasn't what they expected. And it probably isn't what you expect either.In this first message of our new series Point Blank: Faith That Doesn't Flinch, we're opening James 1:1–8 and confronting one of the hardest commands in Scripture — and the one truth that changes everything about how you walk through pain.Joy isn't found after the fire. It's forged in it.