Northwest Church of Christ Sermons

We are called to be living sacrifices. We are called to become stones in God's temple that reveal him to the world. The more we understand this, the more we will realize that all of life, whether at church, home, or work...we are always called to give God our heart, mind, and life in worship.

When we worship it brings us into sacred places where God is present. And if God's Spirit dwells in us, then we take God with us wherever we go. So our worship and devotion to him shouldn't know any limit. Are you truly being shaped by the gifts God wants to give you in worship?

This sermon celebrates the missions giving we do at Northwest. It talks about how money in our hands is temporary but in God's hands it becomes eternal. When we give to God's mission it changes us and changes the world. After this sermon the church gave $111,000 to missions, far exceeding our $95,000 goal!

Ben Williams continues our March for Missions campaign with a sermon that explores why so many young adults want their friends to know Jesus but feel that it's inappropriate to share their faith with them. How do we become people who are comfortable and passionate about telling people the story that we just happen to know is completely true and completely life changing? 

March for Missions guest speaker Hunter Wiederstein challenges us to consider our limits of giving to others. Is there a limit to the time, energy, or tolerance you will give to others? How does that compare to the gifts of faith, hope, and love God gives us? Perhaps we should consider if we are willing to give even more faith, hope, and love to those God desires to come to know him.

When it comes to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, Shannon Hayes reminds us that we must begin with unity of heart, mind, and purpose. The world must be able to see the good news in our relationships with one another and in our unified love for the world. Because if they can't see it...it doesn't matter what we have to say.

One of the most overlooked and often misunderstood women of Genesis is the slave woman Hagar. She is used and abused, tossed out and forsaken. But not by God. In her lowest moments God saw her and knew her name. He called her and gave her a promise and a purpose. And for all of this, she named Yahweh, "El Roi," which means "the God who sees me." When you are down and defeated, God sees you too. He knows your name. He has a promise and a purpose for you.

The book of Psalms reminds us that for every season and every circumstance there is a prayer and God will hear it. So whether you are in the pasture, the pit, or the mountains, God is with you. This sermon shows how that it revealed in Psalm 23, 88, and 121.

Often in life we want to go our own way at our desired speed. This week Nathan reminds us that when we instead choose to follow our dependable God that it can keep us safe, provide what we need when we need it, and get us through life's storms. 

In Acts 2 we read that the church "held all things in common." In many ways the church continues to do this today in our shared ownership of the church's assets. So this week we are talking about the assets of Northwest Church of Christ, the top ten reasons to give to Northwest in 2025, and all God is doing with what's been given to Northwest before. 

This week we are preparing for our discipleship training and consider how Jesus designed his kingdom to grow by multiplication and not addition. Multiplication uses the power of many disciples making new disciples. We also explore how America doesn't have a "bad harvest problem" but really has a "too few harvesters problem." Are you ready to go to the harvest for Christ?

God promised Abraham his descendants would become a blessing to all nations. And yet Jesus grieved that the Temple had failed to become a house of prayer for the nations. And today God desires us to be a light to the nations. This sermon calls us to live in to that calling and discusses some of the reasons we fail to be the light in a dark world. 

From early in history God has often called humans to special tasks or messages. He called Abraham and Moses and one was ready to follow and the other had all the excuses. What can we learn from those excuses? And do we repeat them in our life? Kent then shares what he hopes will open the door to a "God-size vision" for growing disciples at Northwest. Are you will to "come and see" what Jesus is up to and perhaps even "Follow and fish"?

So often people struggle to believe in God because of the suffering in the world. But Scripture acknowledges the suffering, not as God's plan, but as a result of our rejecting God's plan. Now, God works in the midst of the brokenness to bring about a new health and wholeness to us and the world. It's our job to partner with him on this journey toward restoration. The story of Hosea and his adulterous wife gives us an incredible picture of how God takes our sin seriously but loves enough to pay the price for reconciliation. 

God's story doesn't end in the Bible but continues into every Christian's life today. This sermon explores Genesis 1 and the job that humans have to co-rule with God over the creation. What work does God have preselected for you? Are you willing to do it?

The works of Jesus Christ didn't end when the Bible was first sealed. They continue in the lives of every Spirit filled person who follows Jesus. In this sermon, Kent explores what kind of Jesus story is being told at Northwest and what kind of Jesus story is being told in his own life.

We often think about the sacrifice Jesus made in his death. This week we focus on the sacrifice he made in his birth. We also look at Vanstone's idea that love always takes effort and sacrifice, and the love of Christ is certainly evident in his decision to leave his father to go save his prodigal siblings. 

Christian joy is more than just being happy due to your circumstances or being happy even when bad things happen. Christian joy exists in the intersection between faith and hope. If we truly have faith that God will keep his promises, we look forward hopefully towards their fulfillment and experience joy in the present. 

One of the key ideas of the birth of Christ is the arrival of the Prince of Peace to our conflict riddled and broken world. But Scripturally the idea of peace is much bigger than simply ending conflict. The Hebrew and Greek words for "peace" have the idea of something being whole, healthy, and complete. When Jesus truly comes into your life he brings wholeness and then sends us to take the healing power of his peace into the world. 

In the Gospels that describe Jesus' birth, there are many characters surrounding the birth of the Messiah who are experiencing grief, suffering, loss, and great trials. And just as Jesus brought hope to those who waited for him then, he brings hope to those who wait for him now.

This Thanksgiving you can be grateful for all your highlights, or you can put in some time and some work and really explore the three hidden thanksgivings that can truly bless you this season. So whether its the gratitude for suffering, the unspoken gratitude, or the abundance of blessings hidden in the small fonts check out this sermon for ideas on how to really be grateful this season.

Our world is filled with so much worry and anxiety and money, inflation and the economy. And our natural instinct is to cling to what is ours. But both science and Scripture reveal that giving generously is the key to destroying financial anxiety. This sermon uses data, experiments, and examples of the incredible generosity bursting forth all around Northwest to explore how we can be set free from financial fears by following Jesus' example and being open handed givers.

How did Mark's Gospel end in his original version? We don't know for sure, but this sermon explores those possible endings and what it means for our understanding of Mark's conclusion. But the most important thing is that Mark's Gospel was never designed to end the story. His story was designed to launch a final chapter which is told in the lives change by the Jesus story. So how does your life and your response to the good news of Jesus finish Mark's otherwise unfinished gospel?

As Jesus heads toward the cross, small characters make decisions about how to respond to the crucifixion in ways that can help us think about our reaction to the cross today. We also explore how Jesus' words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," may not be an exclamation of abandonment, but rather a final sermon pointing us to the prophecy fulfilled from Psalm 22 which ends "HE HAS DONE IT!"

As Jesus enters Jerusalem the people give him a royal parade and proclaim the return of the line of David. But as Jesus enters what should have been his Temple coronation the parade fizzles and everybody goes to bed. While the Temple establishment failed to recognize it's Lord and Messiah, a woman anoints Jesus as the final events of Jesus' ministry are set into motion. Will you make Jesus king of your life?

In this crucial central part of Mark's gospel the Apostles are accepting that Jesus is the Son of God and Messiah, but they are also struggling to see what kind of Kingdom Jesus plans to rule over. This section, bookended by two stories of blind men seeing ask how much we truly see the true king.

This week we continue our study of Mark by learning the "Lesson of the Loaves." Mark weaves this lesson from the feeding of the 5000 to Jesus walking on water to Jesus feeding the 4000. When all of these things happen and the Apostles are still worried about having enough bread Jesus asks them, "Have you not learned the lesson of the loaves? Do you stil not understand?" The question for us, is if we still doubt Jesus has the power to move in our lives or do we still not understand?

We are too often afraid to have gospel conversations with people. But there's only three things that could happen. They could reject us (red light), be open to talking more (yellow light), or choose to follow Jesus (green lights). We are so afraid of red light interactions that we fail to chase green lights. But as we see in Mark 6, disciples chase green lights and don't let anything stop them. 

Pigs, blood, demons, unclean people, dead bodies...these were things that Jews wouldn't touch because it could make them unclean. But in today's sermon we see Jesus touch exactly these kinds of people in ways that fail to make him unclean but instead share his contagious holiness, cleanliness, and wholeness. Do we live like we believe that same power and Spirit dwells in us today?

This week is the 4th of 11 weeks on the Gospel of Mark. This is likely the first Gospel written and seeks to tell so many of the important details of Jesus' three year ministry so that you will believe in him and become his faithful disciple. Today's passage shows that when Jesus chose the Twelve it became his entire ministry focus to make sure they knew how to become the light on the stand and the tree which would give shelter to the entire world.

Once Jesus became famous, the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law showed up to see if Jesus was who the people claimed he was. When the began testing Jesus, they found that he had answers to all of their questions...and they didn't like it. By the beginning of Mark 3, they were ready to conspire with their enemies to kill Jesus. 

Jesus begins healing, teaching, and casting out demons. The result is that he becomes extremely famous extremely quickly. But Jesus knows that the best ministry is done in small rooms with few people. How can we learn from this model of ministry today?

Mark's Gospel begins, not with genealogies or birth narratives, but with Jesus launching his Messianic ministry. It is immediately clear that he has authority over people, over the spiritual realm, and over the physical realm.

Timothy and Titus have descriptions of Deacons. But Paul gives other examples of the kind of people who should be servants, leaders, and examples in the church. This sermon considers what kinds of people will be servant leaders at Northwest.

This sermon launches our deacon appointment process and follows up on our 2023 study on women deacons. 

In our Northwest tradition we spend this week in August blessing our new babies and children who are about to head back to school.

This sermon explores Paul's appeal to the Romans to preserve unity whenever possible. The Restoration Movement began with the appeal, "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things unity." Are we still willing to be family when small things seem like big things?

In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul gives advice to single people, some never married and some widows. He tells them that if they can stay single they should because they can focus more on serving the Kingdom of God. Do our church leadership decisions today match Paul's advice to the church in Corinth?

David wanted to build a house for God. But God wanted to build a house for David's descendants that would stand forever. While many thought that mean the Temple and the throne of Israel, it truly meant Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. When Jesus died and resurrected to give us his Spirit, we became the new Temple that God dwells in.

So often we are unwilling to step up and serve or answer God's call in our life because we don't feel qualified. But over and over again God proved that He does his best work in people who were younger, less qualified, weaker, or unprepared. In those moments, when they are willing, God truly gets to reveal his glory in those people. 

Jonathan Roumie is an actor who has played Jesus on several occasions. In an interview he talked about the overwhelming feeling and opportunity that can come from being the physical representation of Jesus in the world today. This sermon explores Scriptures that call on us to be exactly that in our lives and in our world, taking Jesus into the places we go. Are you willing to be the embodiment of Christ where you go?

Your self worth can't truly be determined based on what other people say, or your successes, or your income or anything else the world tells you. Your self worth is rooted in the reality that you are made in God's image, that he is continuing to mold you and shape you into his masterpiece, that only God can declare your true worth, and that Jesus died because he found you worthy. The more we understand this the more we rightly view ourselves and others.

The Sabbath Year and Jubilee round out our series exploring God's purpose for rest in our lives and in the world. Are you maximizing your life, spiritually and otherwise by receiving the rest and deliverance from chaotic work God desires for you?

Some people experience loss and suffering and it causes a faith crisis they don't recover from. Others experience great suffering in life and in leads to a stronger and more intimate relationship with God. This sermon explores those differences and gives practical advice to develop a healthy scarred hope in Jesus Christ.

In our first church camp preview sermon Kent talks about how God wants to change us from the inside out. We often picture God as a being outside of the physical world who won't show up and interrupt our lives. But Scripture paints a picture of a God that wants to love us, mold us, transform us, and partner with us to change the world for his good purposes. Are you willing to become a transformed transformer?

In this first sermon on rest, we are exploring 1 Kings 18-19 where Elijah first defeats 450 prophets of Baal and then immediately cowers before a death threat and flees. However, God doesn't get mad. God sends an angel to provide for Elijah in his exhaustion and in his running away. We cannot outrun God's love.

On Senior Sunday Nathan celebrate our seniors, but even more importantly celebrates our awesome God. We too often take God's incredible awesomeness for granted. But when we slow down and remind ourselves of God's greatness, it can restore our own sense of confidence in ourselves as his great creations.

On this Mother's Day we discussed the incredible power of prayer and how we too often pray for things without expectation, anticipation, or faith. Prayer would be more powerful if we instead spoke and listened and believed God's will and our will could become one in times of meaningful prayer.

God desires that He be the main thing in our lives. Whenever we make anything else the main thing it causes our lives to be wildly out of order. But when we put God into our life first, we then orient our values and time around it, then everything in life can fall in place. Is your life rightly ordered or is it time to make some changes?

In James 3, we are told that not everybody should be a teacher. But we shouldn't think of classrooms. James is thinking about people who teach by their words and their actions, who lead by example and influence others. In this way, every parent, boss, or mentor is a teacher and leader. And James isn't saying he wants fewer teachers, but that he wants teachers to be excellent in their heart and character, controlling their tongues and blessing others with their purity, humility and peace-making. Are you ready to lead or repent?

Don't show favoritism. It feels like the obvious instructions we give to children. But actually putting into practice is at the core of Christian discipleship. It means living according to King Jesus' Royal Law and keeps us from being judged. This sermon takes a serious look at how favoritism is the entry point for many other serious evils in our world.