Pastor David Koop

Pastors Blog

GO! Illuminating the World with God’s Love

The call to "GO!" is not a passive suggestion; it is a mandate for the church to actively be salt and light in the world. By flavoring the world with God's love, preserving moral standards, and shining the light of Christ in the darkest corners, believers fulfill the purpose of ...
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How to Deal With Your Enemies

Jesus made it clear that in this life we would face opposition and perhaps, even persecution. As the world continues to polarize around divisive issues, we can expect to find others at odds with our belief in God’s word as final authority. So we should not be surprised if we ...
Coastal Church - Downtown Vancouver Building
Pastors Blog

Keeping Our Church on Course

In my search for answers on how our church might not be such a statistic, I was brought back to an old book by Charles Finney called Revivals of Religion written in 1868. When Finney wrote this, the USA had experienced a revival with thousands coming to faith in Christ ...
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To Serve Well is to Listen Well

In Mark 9:35 we read, “He (Jesus) sat down, called the twelve disciples over to Him, and said, ‘Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.’” Today, in our busy 2022 world, Jesus is calling us over to Himself and giving us ...
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Establishing Your True Identity

Our identity determines our destiny. It determines how we act. It determines what we do. How many times have you seen people sacrifice their destiny for a moment of pleasure because they forgot WHO they are? James addresses this important issue in James 1:23,24, For if anyone is a hearer ...
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Security in Uncertainty

How should we deal with uncertainty? One of the greatest examples in the Bible of someone who was secure in the face of uncertainty is Abraham. He was a successful businessman in one of the most prosperous cities of his day. God would ask him to leave the comfort and ...
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Preparing your Heart for a New Year

There is no shortage of opinions on how to prepare yourself for the upcoming year. Information on how to prepare yourself health-wise. Information on how to prepare yourself financially. But how do we prepare ourselves spiritually? The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches can distract us from ...
family eating together
Pastors Blog

Live Better By Eating Together

You would think that everyone would be working hard to have more family dinners, yet according to a number of studies the frequency of family dinners is shrinking in Canada. Today 1/4 to 1/3 never or seldom eat together as a family and 14% never eat a family meal!
person looking
Pastors Blog

A Miracle in Your Mess

Have you ever found yourself in a mess and you can’t see a way out? There are relationship messes, a financial messes and legal messes to name a few. Sometimes we are in a mess because we “messed up”, other times we’re caught up in a world or turmoil or ...
man looking at horizon
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Shattered Dreams

2020 will always be remembered as the year of the global COVID-19 pandemic. During this unprecedented year many dreams where shattered. Restaurants were closed, concerts cancelled, weddings shrunk, and holidays cancelled, just to name a few. Perhaps, you too, had a dream shattered in the last months. So how should ...
Boy in father's arms
Pastors Blog

In Our Father’s Arms

In the book of Psalms, David states he would have despaired or lost hope, had he not known that despite what he heard and saw happening, God would show His goodness to him. In times of trouble it may look like there is little hope, but wait on the Lord ...
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Navigating In A Changing Culture

The Church that Paul writes to in Colossae faced similar challenges. Their culture had crept into the church and was pressuring the believers to conform to its perspective.The “good philosophies” of Paul’s day did not deny Christ, but it did dethrone Him. It gave Jesus a place, but not the ...
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Finding Your Roots

There is more and more interest these days in finding our family histories. Where did I come from? What is my ancestry? We are encouraged to search the Web to find our roots, to find our particular branch on the family tree. You can even mail away a sample of ...
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Staying Creative in Your Marriage

Having a healthy vibrant relationship doesn’t happen by accident. It takes work and a little bit of creativity to keep it fresh.
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Persistent Prayer

Persistent prayer is perhaps the weapon our enemy Satan fears the most. This is why he will try and discourage us to keep praying if we don’t see a breakthrough right away.
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How to Find a Lost Coin

In Luke 15 we find the “Lost and Found” chapter. Here in this discourse we see Jesus respond to some of His critics by telling them about three things that get lost; a sheep, a silver coin and a son. All three of them are pursued, all are found and ...
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Part 1 – Wisdom From Our Canadian Forefathers

In 2007, I spoke this message to our Coastal Church family and I feel it is even more important today as we see the continual drift of Canada into a more secular culture.There are lots of movies out there that have a theme where the great treasure hunter is looking ...
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Check Up On Your Father’s Influence

God sees every chapter of your life, from the beginning to the end. He has thought through the plot. You’re most likely familiar with Jeremiah 29:11 where the Bible says, “I know the thoughts I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, ...
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Winning Over Rejection

In the movie Back To The Future, there is a scene where Marty McFly goes back in time and is trying to convince his father George to ask his mom Lorriane out on a date. George is sitting in the school cafeteria, lost in a world of writing science fiction ...
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Do you want to multiply your efforts? Consider how you listen

Today we hear more voices competing for our attention than ever before. In today’s digital culture the average person hears over 5,000 media messages per day compared to 300 forty years ago. The amount of content that is uploaded daily on all kinds of platforms is staggering. For example, over ...
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Onwards in 2017!

Here are a few possible reasons:Onwards only happens when there is a purpose. As we read in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. To move forward and stay on track we must have a clear revelation of God’s truth as to who we are in Christ ...
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Following Your Star

The story of the Magi is one of the greatest stories of faith in the Bible. It teaches us to keep our sight on Jesus even when things get rough. These men found in the Christmas story remind us of others who demonstrated great faith as seen listed in Hebrews ...
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Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Remembrance Day is a day as Canadians we stop and reflect on the incredible price that was paid for the freedom and peace we enjoy. May we never take for granted the wonderful land we are privileged to call home.Yesterday I stood on the steps of our church and looked ...
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Facebook Live Q&A: Spiritual Warfare

This past week I had the opportunity to go LIVE on Facebook for a Q&A Session about Spiritual Warfare. We received great questions that you can always go back and watch again here: Spiritual Warfare Q&A – Below you can find answers to the other questions I didn’t cover live:
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Stop and Go Listening

Fifteen times Jesus said: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.”Larry King once said: “Every morning I remind myself that nothing I say this day will teach me anything, so if I am going to learn I’ll do it by listening.”The book of James in the Bible ...
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Passing The Faith Test

It is not “if” we have a trial – a difficult time that will test our trust in God – but “when”.It is inevitable we will have a faith test. About 2000 years ago Pastor James, of the First Church of Jerusalem, gave some amazing insight into the questions that ...
Pastors Blog

The Secret To Contentment In A World Of More

Have you ever noticed the various ways people respond when you ask them how they are doing?Typical responses are: “Great, good, busy, not bad, okay or so-so.” Have you ever had someone respond by saying “I am content”? It would be an usual response and would likely pique your interest.
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God Invented The Conversion Process

God by design converts stuff.I grew up in the foothills of the Rockies near Pincher Creek Alberta which is known for its wind. It is the second windiest place in Canada, following St. Johns, Newfoundland. On the farm we used to have a windmill that generated electricity.
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Take Another Look At Easter

Across Canada we enjoy the long weekend that Easter brings, yet for many what Easter really means is unclear. For some it is just a time off from work and school, or chocolate bunnies in the stores, or the anticipation of spring and perhaps a gathering with family and friends. ...
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Last Words

Have you ever thought what your last words might be? The last words that people speak can reveal a lot about them, whether they have had time to prepare these words or not. Here are a few last words of some famous people:“That was a great game of golf, fellers.” ...
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15 Tips For Speaking In Public

1. Find out who your audience is and study how to make the subject you are presenting relevant.2. Know precisely where you want to take your audience and prepare your talk that they can follow you. Practice giving your talk in the mirror or with a trusted friend and evaluate ...
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7 Keys To Being Married And Staying Best Friends

Often best friends fall in love, get married and then somehow lose that friendship in marriage. Others never marry because they don’t know how to be a true friend to the opposite sex or they don’t want to enter that level of responsibility.What is a best friendship marriage like? How ...
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Share The Care

If you have been following the Australian Open Tennis tournament, you probably saw the clip where Jo-Wilfried Tsonga went over and helped one of the ball girls. Apparently the ball girl had been hit in the face but was doing her best to keep her composure despite being injured.
Pastors Blog

Live Better By Eating Together

According to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, children who have family dinners three or more times per week are:Less likely to be overweightMore likely to eat healthy food
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To Live Better Add Hope

The renowned psychologist and psychiatrist Alfred Adler once said, “Hope is the foundational quality of all change.” If you want to make some changes in 2016 and have a better year, you will need to add a generous portion of hope.The key to having hope is having the right source.
Pastors Blog

Christmas Is About Caring

Christmas is really about caring. The true joy of Christmas is experienced when we care for others and when we reflect on how much God cares about us. Caring by definition means to be warm hearted, kind, interested in others, compassionate, loving or understanding.
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What Child Is This?

This traditional Christmas hymn will take on a whole new meaning for a church in Queens, New York this year. A few days ago they were asking: “What child is this?” It was reported they found an actual newborn infant wrapped in a purple towel in their church nativity scene. ...
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Questions On Fasting

Fasting is a powerful, spiritual weapon when we face challenging situations. In the Bible we read of others such as Queen Esther who fasted when facing the extinction of her people. Her response was to ask her friends to fast with her as she prepared herself to approach the king ...
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Get Rhythm

We are created for rhythm. Our body functions on rhythm; our heartbeat is a rhythm. Our breathing is a rhythm. Our sleep pattern is a rhythm. If we want to have rhythm in our relationships, the first thing that we have to understand is that we are created for rhythm.
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The Power Of Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is a powerful way to live!Thanksgiving, like many of our holidays, has slowly lost its original meaning. When we truly understand what is behind living a life of thanksgiving there is a power released for us to enjoy.
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10 Keys To Using Story To Communicate Truth

The Good Samaritan story has so impacted the world that it has become part of our everyday vernacular to describe someone who helps a person in need. Although a lot of Christian symbols and expressions are being suppressed today, you can still say someone is a “Good Samaritan” without it ...
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Love Must Be Sincere

In the book of Romans, Paul takes the first eleven chapters to explain God’s plan for us, and how we are to love God. In chapter twelve he shifts from a vertical perspective to a horizontal one. Verse nine reads:Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what ...
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Classic Storytelling

Good stories move people. A well told story draws us in, drags us through the mud, puts us through the fire and takes us to higher places. Jesus told stories with classic storytelling techniques that included:1. We are hooked by struggle.