FPC Bellingham FPC Bellingham

Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live May 19, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Elodie and Vale Bates. Special music by Tammy Rutgers (organ), Elliot Smith (trumpet), Kaden Smith (trumpet), Jamison Schmidt (trombone), William Kovacevic (trombone), and Shon Schmidt (trombone).

Be Just, Patient, and Faithful: Be responsible and generous with your money, patient, and live with integrity.


Why might James be so down on rich people?
As rich people, how do we hear these hard words?
What does patient living look like?
How might we strengthen our hearts?
What is the upside to letting your yes be your yes and your no be your no?
Which of these hard words will you work on today?

James 5:1-11

1 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. 4 Listen! The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. 9 Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live May 12, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Nicki Bailey.

Don’t Judge or Presume: Submitting to God, we live kingdom lives by not judging and not presuming, when you drift into judgment or presumption, Spend time in the now.


What does it mean to submit to God? How do we do that?
What does it mean to resist the devil? How effective is that?
What are the different ways we speak evil against others?
Why do you think that James is so against judging?
What is the healthy way to approach future plans?

James 4:7-16

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbour?

13 Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’ 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’ 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live May 5, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Diane Tate.

Strong Tongues: We can do great damage by what we say, let us be quick to listen and slow to speak.


What are the reasons that teachers will be judged with greater strictness?
What does James have against the tongue?
Do you think he is being hyperbolic, or is a tongue really capable of such damage?
What does the image of a spring have to do with the tongue?
How do you feel like responding to this strong word?

JAMES 3:1-18

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15 Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live April 28, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by our 3rd graders!

Dead Faith is Useless

Faith is not belief, faith is living in trust that God will really come through.


How is James distinguishing a life of faith from a life of work?
How might James show his faith by his works?
What does he mean that even the demons believe?
In verse 24,James says we are justified by works and faith, how do we square this with Paul saying we are saved by grace through faith and not by works?
What might a dead faith look like? What might a living faith look like?

DEAD FAITH IS USELESS Faith and Works

14 What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works also when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live April 21, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Greg Hart.


We live out true faith when we treat all with welcome and kindness. What might it look like to be slow to speak and slow to anger?
What is important to doing the word as opposed to only hearing it?
True religion is caring for orphans and widows, why might James list these two categories?
How do we show favoritism? Why might we be tempted to show favoritism?
What would it look like to have a community that doesn’t show favoritism?
What can you do today?


James 1:19-2:13

1:19 You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. 26 If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

2:1 My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality. 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit by my footstool,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live April 14, 2024 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Ann Hinz.


What a Friend We Have in Jesus: We can approach trials in our life with hope and faith because God will use them to draw us into maturity and contentment.


What are trials you have faced?
How did God use these trials to carve out maturity and character in your life?
What would it look like to consider those trials with joy?
What future trials do you dread?
What does it look like to face them with joy?


James 1:1-4

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings. 2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.