Sermons on Joseph Biden:

Our Marriage Series

Contributed by Joseph Rodgers on Jul 18, 2007

The key to a successful marriage is following God’s prescription. This message focuses on the roles of husbands and wives to imitate the example Christ has set for them.

Live Out Loud – Our MARRIAGE Ephesians 5:22-33 Funny: A week before his wife turned 45, a husband asked what she wanted for her birthday. She said, “I’d like to be 10 again.” So on her birthday, he got her up fed her Pop Tarts and Coco Puffs, and whisked her off to of Six ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-32

Denomination: Baptist

Knowing One's Self: Listening To I Am Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 21, 2007

Listening to your own heart IS listening to God. Here I am: availability; God’s I AM is then heard in those who have gone before us. Who am I?: accepting responsibility. God’s I AM is His powerful presence. Montgomery Hills Baptist Church

Do you trust what you hear? You hear something, your ears pick it up, but you don’t quite trust that you’ve heard it right? Sometimes that’s because there is a speaker making rash statements and offering foolish promises. You may have thought that about some preacher! Did he really say that? ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 3:1-14

Denomination: Baptist

Recognizing Aging: Has My Life Been A Failure? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 29, 2007

Montgomery Hills Baptist Church: Built around the five "God is" statements of Avalanche Ranch Vacation Bible School, and punctuated by "Wahoo". God is real, God is with us, God is strong, God is awesome, God is in charge.

And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. Not one thing has failed. It would ...read more

Scripture: Joshua 23:1-16

Denomination: Baptist

Facing The Consequences Of Mistakes: Thrashing Threshing Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 6, 2007

All have sinned; that holds back from being what we could be. Admit that sin is real; acknowledge responsbility for its consequences; see that always there is a price to be paid for sin, but Jesus paid it all. Montgomery Hills Baptist Church

The longer we live, the more we have to be thankful for. Isn’t that true? The longer we live, the more blessings we receive, and therefore the more we have to be thankful for. If you are thirty years old, you can count your blessings, name them one by one. If you are fifty years old, you can ...read more

Scripture: 2 Samuel 24:10-25

Denomination: Baptist

Managing Terrible Times: Windows Blown Out Or Open? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 13, 2007

Liiving large in stressful times requires prayer. We are targets of a conspiracy of hate, but prayer makes us genuinely missionary. We are victims of self-centered religion, but prayer makes us compassionate. Montgomery Hills Baptist Church

(Singing): “Sitting by the window praying, waiting for the break of day; sitting by the window praying, waiting to hear what the Lord might say.” (Repeat) The way to live large is not only to step out in faith, as Abraham did, leaving his comfort zone; and not only to get past old defeats, even ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 6:1-23

Denomination: Baptist

Out Of The Overflow

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 17, 2007

At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke out of the overflow of His heart, which had been building toward this moment.

Do you know what it is to overflow? When you overflow, maybe you say more than you intended to say. Your feelings ran ahead of your thoughts, and blam! There it is, you said it. And you can’t take it back. You spoke out of the overflow. Or maybe when you overflow, you say less than you ...read more

Scripture: Mark 14:66-72

Denomination: Baptist

Getting Real With Your Self Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 19, 2007

We all wear masks, which puts us in danger of losing our real selves. Jesus shows us how to be real as He deals with threatening people, hostile people, and those whose hearts are full of pain. Montgomery Hills Baptist Church

When you wear a mask – not a Halloween costume mask, but a personality mask, a way-of-being mask – when you wear a mask, you not only hide from others, but you also hide from yourself. You lose your real self. And that is a huge loss. It is crucial to get real with yourself. The poet Paul ...read more

Scripture: Mark 14:3-9

Denomination: Baptist

This Thorny Thicket Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 20, 2008

For Martin Luther King Day. The words we offer fall into the thorny thicket of anxiety, despair, and distraction. Like King with his dream, we the church can give hands and feet to help those so captured.

Our back yard is a thorny thicket. Other people have manicured lawns, with friendly plants laid out in neat rows. But our back yard is a tangled thorny thicket. Along one fence there are blackberries, growing in long canes that have to be tied up lest they wander into the next county. They ...read more

Scripture: Mark 4:13-20

Denomination: Baptist

Stand And Be Counted

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 23, 2008

At a church-sponsored rally for census involvement. Census taking may seem invasive, but the information leads toward justice; God is able to use the census for His purposes; and it reminds us of the vast task of redemption to which we are called.

When Rev. Gray asked me to preach, the answer was easy. I am just about always ready to preach! You know how it is with preachers, especially Baptists: we can come up with a Scripture to cover all occasions, we have an opinion about everything, and we believe that everybody is waiting to hear our ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 7:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

To Desire A Better Country

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 23, 2008

Funeral service for Anne Tlholakae, diplomat of the Embassy of South Africa. All of us desire a better country; that journey begins with faith. As Biblical wanderers sought that better country but died in a foreign land, so Anne sought and found Christ

The desire for a better country goes deep in the human heart. The desire for something more, something finer, than what our ancestors left us is an aspiration that transcends all boundaries. Just as here in the United States we celebrate those markers in our history that made us a greater nation, ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Keeping The Doorkeeper

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 26, 2008

Funeral for Guy Robinson, one-time chair of Takoma Park Baptist Church’s Building and Grounds Committee. God keeps the doorkeeper secure, and withholds no good thing from those who stay away from dishonesty.

I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Eight plus one equals nine, subtract nine, leaves zero. That is the first thing Guy Robinson taught me, more than 23 years ago. It was the first thing, but by no means the last. Guy was at the time I ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 84:1-12

Denomination: Baptist

When No One Cares Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 27, 2008

What are the implications if no one cares about the dillusioned, the desperate, or those who have made poor decisions? What if no one cares for the soul, the essence, of others?

He had been running so long and so hard. Running from everything. What an irony that he of all people had had to flee for his very life! He had been on the upswing, he had been successful in everything. He had been the fair-haired lad in the eyes of those who counted, and had even married into ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 142:1-7

Denomination: Baptist

Why Should The Work Stop? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 17, 2008

For Lent and for Black History Month: Those who are threatened by progress will always ask us not to go too far. But this church must not stop reaching all people, serving all needs, touching all children and youth.

In the fall of 1955 I sat in the auditorium of the Speed Scientific School at the University of Louisville, one of about 300 newly admitted engineering students. The dean welcomed us, and yet also warned us. He instructed us, “Look at the person on your right. Now look at the person on your ...read more

Scripture: Nehemiah 6:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Without Hindrance Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 24, 2008

For Lent and for Black History Month, with a focus on Africa: the purposes of God will be accomplished, though not without difficulties and sacrifice. Examples of African Christians to show this truth.

I cannot imagine how Paul did it. Here he is, in prison, chained to a soldier, and he is talking about hope and making plans for the future. How can anyone with half a brain do that? Does he not understand how perilous is his predicament? Chained! Awaiting trial! And yet he can say, “It is ...read more

Scripture: Acts 28:16-30

Denomination: Baptist

Heaven

Contributed by Joseph Phillips on Mar 1, 2008

Sermon about heaven created for a memorial service

“Heaven” Memorial Service – March 1, 2008 Pastor Joseph C. Phillips, Jr., How do you describe the indescribable, give one a glimpse into glory…a taste of heaven? There is not enough ink in a pen or in a cartridge, nor do we have the time to do justice ...read more

Scripture: John 14:1

Denomination: Christian Missionary Alliance