Sermons on Joe Smith:

The Questions Of Christmas Series

Contributed by Tim Smith on Oct 19, 2009

Christmas brought three questions which every person needed to deal with as they encountered the Christ child. Christmas isn’t so much about what God has done for us as it is about our response to the Christ child and to these questions.

The Questions of Christmas Luke 2:8-20 It’s tough to miss Christmas if you live in America today. We hear the ads on the radio and TV, see the lighted houses and buildings, the decorated yards in our neighborhoods, and the displays inside every store remind us Christmas is coming in case we’ve ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:8-20

Denomination: Methodist

The Amazing Race Series

Contributed by Tim Smith on Oct 19, 2009

Paul calls us to intense training. The challenge which lies before us is nothing short of reaching the world for Christ and building God’s kingdom here on earth with a multi ethnic church. It is far beyond our current ability and it will not happen overni

The Amazing Race Hebrews 12:1-3 Have any of you ever watched the Amazing Race? It’s a reality game show in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. Contestants strive to arrive first at the end of each leg of the race to win prizes and to avoid coming in ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-3

Denomination: Methodist

From Furnished Rooms To Fragrant Gardens

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2009

Now that this church has rebuilt its basic structure, it is time to go on and make it all work. To do so, go back to rediscover God’s intention for humanity and understand that the church is to restore the "garden."

One spiritual principle shows up over and over again in the Scriptures. One theme is repeated endlessly: and that is that the way to go forward is to go back. The way to move ahead with your life is to go back, to go back to its roots, go back to its foundations, where you discover what is valuable ...read more

Scripture: Hosea 14:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Friend Of The Shut Out Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 20, 2009

We are not shut out: Jesus includes us by giving us knowledge, by giving us a place in His mission, and by paying the price to see that we are included in the Kingdom.

A number of years ago I saw a very provocative poster. It was a depiction of the doors of Washington. Nothing more than a series of doors, arranged in rows on the poster, probably twenty or twenty-five, all photographs of various doors in this city. Some of them were beautifully simple doorways ...read more

Scripture: John 15:12-17

Denomination: Baptist

Friend Of The Misunderstood Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 21, 2009

Misunderstand is accidentally or deliberate. Jesus dealt with the accidental by bringing witnesses, going to the root of the issue, and affirming the questioner; with the deliberate by refusing to make others happy, being true to Himself, letting actions

It’s easy to be misunderstood. Misunderstanding happens all the time. It is very, very easy to be misunderstood. One way to be misunderstood is to be vague and hazy. Just mumble under your breath and utter ambiguities, and I guarantee that you will be misunderstood. Some of you are devotees of ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 11:2-19

Denomination: Baptist

Friend Of The Full Heart Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 23, 2009

Christmas is a time for full hearts: weary, guilty, anxious, sad -- past, present, and future. Mary felt the same things, but Christ comes to forgive our past, empower our present, and assure our future.

Christmas is an emotional time. All kinds of feelings are involved with the celebration of Christmas. If you don’t feel some tension, some excitement, or some pressure, something at this time of the year, you are either dead or you’ve been watching the Redskins, which is about the same thing. ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

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

Lessons From Facing A Broken Economy

Contributed by Tim Smith on May 28, 2009

We have all been through downturns before but this one is different. It has multiple, complex causes. It is global in nature and no one knows how long it will last or if the bailouts will work. What can we learn in a downturn? Based on a Bill Hybels ser

Lessons from Facing a Broken Economy Romans 8:28-39 Bill Hybels tells the story of finishing a meeting at his church and bumping into a woman who asked about their PADS Ministry which hosts people one night a week who need a place to sleep. They have between 30 and 50 people who show up. They ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:28-39

Denomination: Methodist

According To Your Word

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 29, 2009

Funeral sermon for Mary Henry, aged 101, prayer warrior and Bible student, who, like the Biblical Mary, could accept whatever the Word taught her.

Submission is not subservience. Humility is not the same thing as low self-esteem. In fact, it takes a strong and certain heart to be submissive and not subservient, to be humble and not cowardly. If ever there was a strong and certain heart, that was Mary Henry. She knew how to submit to all ...read more

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Denomination: Baptist

"Act Like You Know!"

Contributed by Kevin Smith on May 30, 2009

Many of us as Christians say we know we’ve been changed, but we don’t act like we know we’ve been changed in terms of our praise & worship to God.

I. Introduction -Re-read verses 8 & 9 in the text as focal verses. -Present Title of sermon. -At the onset of this message I would submit to you that many of us say we know we’ve been changed by God and we know we’ve been changed, but we don’t really act like we know we’ve been changed. -I’m not ...read more

Scripture: Acts 3:1-10

Denomination: Pentecostal

God Operates Value Village, Not The Landfill

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jun 6, 2009

For Senior Adult Sunday: There are legitimate concerns about aging; but there are also those who would prey on the elderly. God is our ultimate refuge and the protector of those who are to be valued, not thrown away.

If it’s old, it has to go. That used to be the message. In the years after World War II, once we got our economy back on a peacetime basis, we all wanted only new things. Bright, shiny, new. And so, if it’s old, it has to go. Do you remember? Do you remember, if you go back that far, how, during ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 71:4-12

Denomination: Baptist

Hope Does Not Disappoint

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jun 8, 2009

Suffering, endurance, character, hope: the formula is not automatic. All depends on whether we learn to live in the resurrected Christ.

One of my friends begins nearly every conversation with the phrase, "You just can’t win.” "You just can’t win." One day recently he was wearing a long, long face. He had just gotten his car repaired, but some inebriated partygoer had slammed into it. He had just worked off his debts, but suddenly ...read more

Denomination: Baptist