Sermons on Joe Smith:

Give Up Or Get Up?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 8, 2009

Never consider anyone hopeless. Pray intensely, watch out for the naysayers or for your own negativity, and then participate in the redemption Christ wants to bring.

He’s just hopeless! She is beyond redemption! I am never going to make it! They have no future whatsoever! They are hopeless! Are you ever tempted to speak like that? Do you ever feel that way about somebody, maybe even about yourself? Hopeless? Watch out. Because there is nothing more ...read more

Scripture: Luke 8:40-56

Denomination: Baptist

Revived To Die?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 9, 2009

What must it have felt like to be revived, only to know that you will die again? It is true of a church that has undergone revival. Some will even try to kill the revival. Embrace it, unbind it.

We always welcome visitors in our church from wherever they may come. But I do wonder today if we have any visitors from the other side. The other side, you know. No, I don’t mean the Catholics. I mean the other other side. Do we have any visitors from beyond the grave? Thus begins the sermon ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Plight Of The Living Dead Series

Contributed by Joel Smith on May 13, 2009

"I see dead people."

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Sixth Sense. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychiatrist working with a young boy played by Haley Joel Osment who claims to be able to see dead people. The kid figured out that the dead people, who he alone can see and converse with, don’t know that ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Walls Come Tumblin' Down

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 14, 2009

We run into many walls we cannot seem to get past: estrangement, grief, illness. The way past those walls is described as Sabbath, symbol, silence, and shout.

When you are up against a wall, there will be more than one way to deal with it. There will be the conventional way. And there will be the creative way. When you are up against a wall, there will be a way to break it down that costs a whole lot less than the usual way. All of us remember Mark ...read more

Scripture: Joshua 6:1-21

Denomination: Baptist

Venus De Milo: Beautiful But Not Perfect

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 14, 2009

We are not perfect, nor are we beyond redemption. Wake up to correct the inadequacies; strengthen what is worth keeping; and remember the grace of God.

In the best of us there are deep flaws; but in the worst of us there is something worth redeeming. In the best of us there are deep, profound flaws. Every fine and saintly person I have known has been hard to get along with, had blinders on about some issue, or just hung on to some irritating ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6

Denomination: Baptist

Ghostbusters

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 15, 2009

Panicked people do irrational things, like attempt to live in the past or to live out of bad religion. Panic can be dealt with only by trusting God and living in integrity. Luther’s Reformation is a prime illustration.

Children are not the only ones who are afraid of the dark. You do not have to be a child to be subject to irrational, unreasoning fears, fears that take you over and leave you breathless. Children may be afraid of dark rooms and of monsters under the bed, but the rest of us also panic. Don’t tell ...read more

Scripture: 1 Samuel 28:3-18

Denomination: Baptist

God's Bountiful Buffet

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 16, 2009

Juy 31, 1988. When we don’t have enough, materially, it’s easy to be spiritual, and we respond with gratitude. When we have enough, materially, it’s still easy to be spiritual, and we respond with responsibility.

You may not know it, but we may be in the vicinity of a piece of history. We may be in the neighborhood that gave rise to a revolution in the restaurant business. I cannot really document this, but at least in my limited observation, it was right here in this neighborhood that one enterprising ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:1-18

Denomination: Baptist

Clueless On Purpose

Contributed by Joel Smith on May 18, 2009

Choose Christ rather than cluelessness.

When I was growing up one of the highlights of the year took place every September. We were all euphoric when the Davidson County Agricultural Fair rolled into town. As a kid I liked the rides and the cotton candy and candy apples. As a teenager and young adult, I enjoyed the fair because it was a ...read more

Scripture: Luke 19:28-44

Denomination: Baptist

God's Opinion Of Popular Opinion

Contributed by Joel Smith on May 18, 2009

If you will let Christ change your mind, through you He will change the world.

This year has been quite a learning experience for me. I’ve learned much about World History and American Government because those are the two main subjects I teach, but I’ve also learned a lot about the why the church in America is so ineffective in our modern culture. I’ve gained this knowledge ...read more

Scripture: James 4:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

What's In It For Me?

Contributed by Joel Smith on May 18, 2009

If you will live for Christ like no one else, later you can live with Christ like no one else.

Today I speak to you as a free man. School is out for summer. I haven’t had this much freedom since I was a teenager. It’s been a good year, though. Not only have I learned to rely on God and witnessed more of His faithfulness, I learned a lot about my subject areas. I was truly challenged ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 19:27-30

Denomination: Baptist

Having And Giving Authority

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 18, 2009

How do we decide whom to help and how, of all the needs presented? Jesus responded to the needs that presented themselves, He discerns what the real problems are, and He trusted others with authority.

The problem is never whether somebody needs help. The problem is always which somebody we can help. The issue is never whether there are any needs. There are always needs. In any given moment there are more needs than anyone person can possibly address. The issue is how to make the choice. Who ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

God And Hurting Persons

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 21, 2009

God has always expressed care for those who hurt; it’s nothing new. But Jesus extended that care to those not like His listeners, and His church is intended to reach the marginal.

This week, while the rest of you were surfing the Internet reading Ken Starr’s report, I was reading my favorite form of literature. I was reading "church bulletin bloopers." Church bulletin bloopers are those funny little errors that creep into church bulletins, maybe because the typist didn’t ...read more

Scripture: Luke 4:14-30

Denomination: Baptist

Persistence In The Presence: How Women Pray

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 22, 2009

Women succeed in pray because they persist in trusting God, allow the whole self to pray, take God at His word, are not afraid of intensity, choose responsibility over religion, and keep their commitments.

If, as Thomas Edison tells us, genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration, then I suspect it is also true that prayer is one per cent insistence and ninety-nine per cent persistence. Prayer is one per cent insistence, to be sure; we do, in our prayers, tell God what ...read more

Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:1-28

Denomination: Baptist

Veni, Vidi, Velcro Series

Contributed by Joel Smith on May 24, 2009

I came, I saw, I stuck. Choosing Velcro over Teflon.

The Baptist Standard of last year made this sad prediction: “The Southern Baptist Convention is dying rapidly, and resistance to change could kill more than half the denomination’s churches by 2030, SBC President Frank Page said. Unless something is done to reverse the downward trend, Southern ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22

Denomination: Baptist

Funeral Sermon

Contributed by Tim Smith on May 28, 2009

Sermon for a 19 year old mother and her 20 month old son who were murdered

Domonique Sterling and Robert Claiborne What does one say when we face the brutal murder of two people so young? How are we to find the words to express the devastation in the hearts of Dana and Kevin and their families. Words seem completely inadequate. I know nothing that I can say which will ...read more

Scripture: John 14:1-14

Denomination: Methodist