Sermons on Joseph Biden:

Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 17, 2009

We damage ourselves as well as the others when we write off whole peoples through racism. When we see them as persons, with human faces, we discover that to write them off is to damage ourselves. Fellowship in Christ leads us to value difference.

A widow, shortly after her husband’s death, was going through his papers. She found a couple of old certificates, yellowed with age and crumbling into dust. They had been made out to her husband more than fifty years ago, and seemed to be some kind of promissory notes. Some sort of company had ...read more

Scripture: Esther 7:1-4

Denomination: Baptist

Fully Known

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 18, 2009

Healthy self-knowledge means that in Christ we know enough to be functional, and indeed our ignorance is the vehicle through which God conveys wisdom, for in Him we are fully known.

Charley Brown says to Lucy, still dispensing sage wisdom for the pre-inflationary price of five cents, "Nobody likes me, Lucy. Everybody hates my guts. Do you see that plane up there, Lucy? It’s a plane full of people going somewhere else. That’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to go somewhere else, ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:4-31

Denomination: Baptist

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 Hopeful Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 22, 2009

In fearful times, there are also signs of hope. Some turn everything into a sign of fear and conflict. Others can see hope if they allow others to succeed. The child Jesus is a sign of such hope.

"The time of fear is over; now comes the time of hope." These words were spoken in the most unlikely of situations. A French novelist, Tristan Bernard, and his wife, were being put into prison by the Gestapo, after the Nazis had overrun France. They were being sent to a concentration camp; ...read more

Scripture: John 3:25-30

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

Fresh Encounter

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 24, 2009

All of us need to hear God’s love in a fresh way. Some say they do not want an encounter, but they do. Some do not expect anything new. Some are just past their first thrill of knowing Christ. Some have never exercised faith. Christ waits to receive

Just about everybody ought to get married, at least once. There’s nothing quite like it in all the world. Everybody ought to have the experience of learning the difference between fantasy and reality. That’s what happens when you get married. Everything up to marriage is fantasy. It’s romance, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 9:14-17

Denomination: Baptist

Frantic Work Or Focused Life

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 26, 2009

Wisdom lies in knowing when to be busy and when to be reflective. Both Martha and Mary wanted the affirmation of Jesus. But it always comes by grace alone.

Author Sam Keen, in his provocative little book called Apology for Wonder, tells us the lesson he learned as young boy swimming in the Indian River inlet on the Delaware coast. Keen says that swimming there was very tricky, because the outgoing waters from the bay met the incoming tides waves from ...read more

Scripture: Luke 10:38-41

Denomination: Baptist

Sing With The Mind Also

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 26, 2009

Cantate Sunday, 1986: Music has power to involve every facet of our beings in worship, it helps build the body of Christ, and it can offer a credible witness to the world.

It was offertory time in the morning worship, and everyone had settled down quietly – settling down, I suspect, for a little nap to get themselves ready for the big nap they would take during the sermon! And, as was customary, the organist began the slow and solemn strains of an offertory: music to ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:6-15

Denomination: Baptist

Earning The Right To Be Heard

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 27, 2009

Jesus is God’s way of earning the right to be heard. He comes to where we live, and he experiences what we experience. He is therefore credible.

I invite you to eavesdrop with me this morning. Listen and we can overhear some conversations. Overheard in the grocery store aisle: a mother and a little girl, shopping dangerously close to the candies, the cookies and the other goodies. The little girl saying, "I want these and I want those and ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Churchill Or Church, Ill?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 29, 2009

As Winston Churchill rallied the British people, so Paul rallies Christians by urging us to review our motivations and to present something solid and not merely entertaining. Such a church will prevail and thrive.

On the fifth of June, 1940, not even a month after he became prime minister, Winston Churchill spoke to the British people to encourage them of their desperate situation. Bear in mind that in September of the previous year the Nazis had invaded Poland, with no effective resistance. Thereafter, ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 6:7-10

Denomination: Baptist

Earthen Vessel, Feet Of Clay

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 29, 2009

Ordination of Troy L. Dixon, Nov. 1989: We pursue the trappings of religion instead of what is truly value. As a common clay vessel, be wary of power games, know that your foundation can crumble, focus on the treasure of the Gospel.

Somehow in men’s minds the paraphernalia of religion get to be more important than the faith itself. It is one of the enduring problems of religious life, how it is that we get far more caught up and invested in the trappings of religion than in the faith itself. In your average church, you ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:5-18

Denomination: Baptist

Cisterns, Channels, And Stagnant Ponds

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 30, 2009

If we do not share our faith we will not truly learn it. If we take nothing in we will go dry. Truly refreshing spirituality involves both learning and sharing the truth.

A few weeks ago, as the hot weather season got into full swing, I remembered something I had not done to prepare for the season. Last summer we had bought a big plastic garbage container and had set it outside, next to the air conditioner compressor, and I had run the exhaust hose into it in order ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:1-12

Denomination: Baptist

The Elbow Test Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 31, 2009

We may test our spiritual maturity by assessing who Jesus is for us, whether we live with a sense of victory, and whose opinions matter to us.

During our stay in England, we visited my wife’s cousin and his wife, who have a nine-month-old baby son. One night they needed to go out for a while on an errand, so they asked us if we would take care of the baby for a couple of hours. Of course we were delighted with the chance to do so, since ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 4:1-6

Denomination: Baptist