Sermons on Chuck Smith:

Failing, Fruitless, Flourishing

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 7, 2010

We are a part of this world's injustice and brokenness, and need to repent, for we have too often attempted nothing or have given ourselves to pointless activity. "Only what you do for Christ will last" and that is guaranteed by His risen life.

There are just too many things that are not the way they ought to be, and I don’t like it! Are you with me? There are too many things going on that should not be going on, and when I hear about them or experience them, it disturbs me. I don’t like the brokenness I see in this ...read more

Scripture: Luke 13:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Laborers Together With God

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 11, 2010

Annual sermon, D. C. Baptist Convention. Clergy and laity will be in conflict, but it can be creative when we recognize our humanness, turn our competitiveness in productivity, and learn to identify where God is already at work.

I've done a little work through the years in helping ministers get positions on church staffs. Every Baptist minister, I guess, has done that. Where are the bishops when you really need them? But it's been fun to help young ministers, particularly those who were students of mine from my campus ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Peace Now

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 12, 2010

Funeral message for Matthew Jackson, a quiet man whose chief pleasure was to be among family and friends and who devoted himself to a disabled son.

There are two kinds of quiet people. There are those who are quiet because, to tell the truth, they have nothing to say! And then there are those who are quiet because they are simply content with what they know; they have no need to impress anyone else. There are two kinds of quiet people. Two ...read more

Scripture: James 3:13-18

Denomination: Baptist

If You Want Joy

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 13, 2010

Genuine joy comes after we do what Christ bids us do, and is grounded in our relationship to Him. In fact, the real issue is not our joy but His.

If you want joy! What a ridiculous premise! Of course you want joy. Of course we want to be happy. Of course all of us want to feel deep satisfaction with life. We want joy. That's just self-evident. The trouble is, we don't know how to get that joy. We don't understand where joy comes from, how ...read more

Scripture: Luke 10:1-21

Denomination: Baptist

All Things

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 14, 2010

Final message on the church's vision statement. Christ's lordship over all things means that there is nothing worthy that we can leave out of our work, but it will succeed if we are focused on Him and not on our own success.

At the very center of the Christian faith there is Christ. That sounds self-evident: it seems obvious. But we keep forgetting it. We keep on trying to live without a center. Think about a wheel which has no hub; if you try to roll that wheel, its spokes will collapse. And no church will hold its ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:28-39

Denomination: Baptist

Fearing Fear

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 15, 2010

Delivered 1986. Fear is often a self-fulfilling prophecy, based on our image of a vengeful God. But challenging God is faith-filled, and His response is Jesus, who experiences all that we experience.

The trouble with preparing sermons in a series that lasts several weeks is that I am never quite sure whether I am the only one who knows where we are in that series. I am never quite sure whether you see just four sermons, or maybe you only attend two of the four weeks, or whether you sit with ...read more

Scripture: Job 3:20-26

Denomination: Baptist

Knowing Just Enough To Be Dangerous Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 17, 2010

Being less than fully informed Christians can be injurious to ourselves and to our world. Ultimately we need to know Christ personally as much as we need to know about our faith.

Between knowing nothing and knowing a great deal there is something which is very dangerous. That is knowing a little. Knowing just enough to be dangerous. In many instances, it isn't dangerous to be totally ignorant. If you don't know, and you know you don't know, you will go ahead and get help. ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Brothers: Rivals, Partners, Or Soul Mates?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 17, 2010

For Masonic Divine Service: Brothering can be an accident of birth or proximity, but it often becomes competitive because of insecurity or exploitive because of sin. Christ chooses us to be brothers and lays His life down for us.

It's almost time to elect a president of the United States. Every four years we go through this little exercise called a national election. And even though every four years we tell one another that the election is about issues; about the economy and about foreign policy and about defense and about ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 4:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

The Best Is Yet To Be

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 21, 2010

Senior Adult Sunday 1989: God wants to bless us in our senior years and to give us "laughter". He can work through our mistakes and even make those into blessings. From crosses He makes resurrections.

As they passed through the middle age years and headed for senior status, they took some measures to make sure that those years would be manageable years. They took stock of their finances, for example, and made sure that there would be enough for everyday life and for at least a few emergencies. ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 17:1-21

Denomination: Baptist

Waiting For Full Joy

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 22, 2010

Delivered 1989, on the 25th anniversary of the reception of the church's first black member. We wait for full joy and unity, which come from embracing all people and from being the agents of redemption for all needs.

Exactly twenty-five years ago, two things happened which were destined to have a profound effect on my life, and I want to share them with you this morning. These two unrelated happenings took place without the people involved in either one being aware of the other one, but, as I have said, both ...read more

Scripture: John 17:6-18

Denomination: Baptist

Where Is The God Of Justice?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 25, 2010

For Martin Luther King Day 1988: It is irresponsible to continue to whine about God's absence in the face of injustice. He is refining His church to address justice, and will bless us when we give ourselves without reserve to His purposes.

Some twenty-four centuries ago, when the prophet Malachi's ears were assaulted by an impertinent question, he heard it as a confession of irresponsibility. When the men and women of Judah shouted at this prophet, who had accused them of wearying God, who had charged that their blabbering talk was ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Prayer And The Cynical

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 25, 2010

Prayer emphasis fall 1987: common wisdom is that we will never change, and the cynic believes that. Like Koheleth we can lose hope for everything. But the Christ who will come gives us hope, life, companionship, and is at work in all things for change a

One of the rules you learn when you study the discipline of marriage counseling is that you must try to help young people preparing for marriage to know at least this much: that whatever he or she is now, they will be more of it in fifty years. Whatever he or she is now, they will be more of it in ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Healed Hearts Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2010

The fearful heart cannot accept what God offers; but the healed heart receives freedom from shortcomings, confidence before the world, and liberty from becoming a controller of others.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC; November 23, 1986 By now you are probably weary of heart, this several weeks of dealing with what I have called, "heart diseases." By now you may have felt that everything that could be said about the heart in a Biblical reference had been said, maybe ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Hitting Rock Bottom: The Younger Brother

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2010

The prodigal succumbed to temptations all of us face: money, sex and power. He survived because he stopped denying his reality and received the grace of the father.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC June 26, 1988 It is frequently said about alcoholics that they have to hit rock bottom before they can be helped. The usual understanding is that because of the nature of the disease, the behavior called alcoholism, the person who suffers as a ...read more

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

Denomination: Baptist

Community Series

Contributed by Tim Smith on Oct 20, 2010

Every day, we find ourselves actively engaged in crowds. There are all kinds of crowds. There’ s the work crowd, the school crowd, the crowd associated with the activities of our children and there is the church crowd. It is easy to confuse our associatio

The Amazing Race: Community Mark 2:1-5 Every day, we find ourselves actively engaged in crowds. There are all kinds of crowds. There’ s the work crowd, the school crowd, the crowd associated with the activities of our children and there is the church crowd. It is easy to confuse our ...read more

Scripture: Mark 2:1-5

Denomination: Methodist