NHCC Sermons & Teaching

Hebrews 12:1-2, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne...

Psalm 10:4, In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek Him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” More and more these days, people are driven by emotion. Just a casual drive down Highway 50 gives you a clear picture of people acting and responding on emotion. Often those emotions are anger, frustration, impatience, etc.----------How do we allow "cooler heads to prevail" when fa...

Romans 7:18-20, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.----------One of the things many of us share in common is our f...

John 1:14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.----------Samson's birth illustrated God's work for His purpose and His people on many levels. God has an innate ability to take the lives of individuals and their circumstances to affect major change for many people.----------Such was the...

Ephesians 3:20-21, Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.----------Being chosen to serve God is part of the Christian walk. Technically speaking, it isn't an optional activity. As we reflect the person of Jesus...

Ephesians 2:8-9... For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.----------The Israelites during the period of the Judges struggled mightily with following and worshiping God as the singular definitive Creator and Father. At times, they would abandon him altogether to worship false Gods. Other...

Revelation 21:7... All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. ----------Rejection is one of the most common tools that the devil uses to destroy our lives. It can attack any person whether young or old, rich or poor. It can be deeply rooted and woven into their identities since childhood. It can destroy our self-esteem and preven...

Judges 10:16, So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.----------Life and literature are filled with the “Cinderella legend,” stories about rejected people who were eventually “discovered” and elevated to places of honor and authority. Horatio Alger wrote over 100 boys’ novels that focused on the “rags-to-riches” theme...

Philippians 2:9-11, Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ----------As we turn this week to the story of Abimelech, some of the lessons we can glean from it tie direc...

Romans 11:33, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! ----------This week, we complete the four-part mini-series over the Judge, Gideon. In this final installment, we see the events surrounding Gideon's later life. It is a lesson about the magnitude of the choices we make. Even a good choice sometimes has a...

Judges, perhaps more than any other book of the Bible, shows us the failure of humanity to live out God's call on our lives. The book's final words sum up the picture: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25)

Romans 10:8-9, But what does it say? “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the Word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.----------As we continue our look at the life and judgeship of Gideon, we look to his growing faith in God's plan for...

Judges 6:14… “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” This week, we begin a multi-week look at the judgeship of Gideon. Our initial view of Gideon focuses on his calling by God to deliver Israel from Median's oppression. Gideon was happy to hear about the deliverance, less excited about being God's choice for him to lead the charge.---------...

1 John 5:4-5, For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Last week we talked about the distress we often find when we succumb to disobedience. This week, we get a glimpse of the confidence we can have in Christ because of the po...

Romans 8:28, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.----------What causes you distress? Maybe it is a child or spouse who might be hurting physically or spiritually. Perhaps it might be the loss of a job, or financial stress. Whatever it might be, distress comes in two basic forms: those things that others have d...

Judges 21:25, In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.----------Judges, perhaps more than any other book of the Bible, shows us the failure of humanity to live out God's call on our lives. The book's final words sum up the picture: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:...

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! --Matthew 23:37One of the wonderful things about having a godly mother is that it allows us to have an insight into the character of our Creator. Rather than assuming God has femini...

John 21:25, Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.----------Belief in Jesus Christ is not conceptual. We cannot assume to simply assert that we intellectually accept that Jesus existed. True, biblical belief calls for a conviction based on that fundamental belief t...

John 17:17, Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth. The philosophical notion of truth in our society and culture can best be described as fluid. To many people today, truth is not based on an absolute concept but rather more based upon each person's personal opinion and/or perception of it.----------Of course, with God, truth is something vastly different. It is one of the defining ch...

Micah 6:8, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?----------More and more, we live in a world and are saturated by a culture that attempts to further and further blur the lines between what is right and wrong... between what is acceptable and unacceptable... between what is appropriate an...

John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. With apologies to Beauty and the Beast, "For God so loved the world..." is truly a tale as old as time. When we think of the character of God and focus on His love, this is the verse that both summarizes and defines the extent of God's love for mank...

John 20:30-31, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His nameThe Resurrection of Jesus Christ has been called the "hinge of human history," indicating the overwhelming significance not only on our...

John 9:4-5... We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the World. If we go to the mailbox and find an envelope with the word "URGENT" printed on the front, what does that tell us? For some of us, we assume it is junk mail that someone is trying to trick us into opening it and find out...

We can get conditioned by this world's view of things. For instance, there is a belief that true peace is the absence of conflict or difficulty. While peace could be described in that way, it is a limited description.----------True peace actually comes in understanding that concepts like contentment, joy, fulfillment, and yes, peace, are actually an internal quality that is not dependent on t...

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. --John 5:8-9This Sunday, we encounter a fascinating story that happened at the Pool of Bethesda—a man who had been lame for 38 years! Jesus asks him a seemingly obvious question, “Do you want to be healed?” and the man responds with excuses.----------What happens to many of us...