Northwest Church of Christ Sermons

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...

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 an...

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...

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 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 th...

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...

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 under...

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 t...