Sermons on Joseph Cook:

Love Like A Red, Red Rose Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 1, 2003

The coming of Christ offers hope to lives dried out in meaninglessness, beyond our limitations, and in the midst of sin-weariness. Advent series illustrated with Chrismons

“Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth, Love is like a rose the joy of all the earth, Faith is like a lily lifted high and white, Love is like a lovely rose the world’s delight. Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth, But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.” So ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10, Song of Songs 2:1

Denomination: Baptist

Prayer, Power, And Personal Problems Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 2, 2003

Many of our interpersonal problems are actually personal, the resulting of feeling weak. Paul’s strategy was to pray for those with whom he had conflict, and that helped him become whole. The cross demonstrates the power of weakness. For Reformation Su

When we are in trouble, our first instinct is to pray. And that’s right. That’s as it should be. The only problem is that when we are in trouble, our first instinct is to pray for ourselves. And that’s where something goes wrong. That’s our mistake. Pray for someone else, and we will discover ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:1-10, Psalm 46:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

The Lily: Sprawling Weed Or Medicinal Herb Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 2, 2003

God comes in Christ to heal our disloyalty, to judge and yet cure our sin, to help us flourish. Illustrated with Chrismons.

When I was twelve years old, our family moved to a house larger than the one we had been in. With a larger house came more yard, and with more yard came more plants to care for and more lawn to mow. If anybody was going to do any gardening at our home, it would have to be my father. My mother, ...read more

Scripture: Song of Songs 2:1, Hosea 14:4-7

Denomination: Baptist

The Olive: Exhaustion Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 2, 2003

How do we replenish our exhaustion? The world into which Jesus was born was spiritually weary. We too are worn out from conflict, moral uncertainty. God has acted to come among us and to give us power to become.

“All ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the climbing way, with painful steps and slow, Look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing: O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!” You don’t have to look long to find examples ...read more

Scripture: Job 15:17-35, John 1:1-14

Denomination: Baptist

The Changing Church And The Changeless Christ

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 5, 2003

Although we may not want the church to change, change is inevitable and positive. Change will be guided if we will remember and assess accurately the traditions we have been given, if we will also assess proposed changes and not panic, and if we will mea

Some folks are allergic to change. They want everything to be just as it always was. They get used to things and they want everything to stay put. Some folks just won’t deal with change. A few weeks ago the electricity went out at our house. Some transformer blew, and for several hours we had ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 13:7-16

Denomination: Baptist

So Filled We Cannot Stand

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 5, 2003

What brings the glory of God to worship? Discernment of where we are in God’s plan and a willingness to grow the gifts of God’s people.

What a clattering cacophony, that day in Jerusalem! What an assault on the ears! You could hardly hear yourself think. I don’t suppose they had rock concerts three thousand years ago, but it must have been a little like a rock concert. With noise, noise, noise! Loud, boisterous, ...read more

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 5:1-14

Denomination: Baptist

Fear No One Bearing Gifts

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 6, 2003

Solomon built the Temple using foreign gifts and foreign artists. Each of us brings to today’s church the limitations of his own culture, and must learn to ask for and trust the gifts others can give. Working together we learn to savor God’s greatness.

The Latin poet Virgil, in his epic poem, The Aeneid, has one of the Trojan warriors murmur, when a giant wooden horse was offered as a gift by the Greek armies outside the city walls, “I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts.” “I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts.” That is a statement of ...read more

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 2:1-12

Denomination: Baptist

Fire Of Glory, Fire Of Drought

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 8, 2003

We have experienced the warm glow of God’s blessings, but the fire of judgment is also at hand, for worship becomes ritual, there is a critical spirit, and pessimism spreads. Diligence and integrity bring vitality in worship.

In all the annals of human history, there is one item which has held out more hope and yet offered more terror than any other. Wherever human beings gathered, in the infancy of our race, there this one item, this one element, both attracted them and repelled them; it drew them close and yet it ...read more

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:1-22

Denomination: Baptist

Too Wide To Hide

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 8, 2003

Preached in a church of another denomination for Christian Unity Sunday and Martin Luther King Sunday: we tend to hide our own history and to conceal our witness. But God calls us into a wider ministry.

I’m not sure how it is among Methodists, but we Baptist folks have a strange custom of hiding when we come to church. We hide. We try to get in and get out without being noticed. I don’t know whether Methodists are infected with this disease, but with Baptists it is an epidemic. We hide. ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 40:1-11, Micah 6:6-8

Denomination: Baptist

God's Perfect Plan: Strength, Action, Courage

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 9, 2003

When God gives us a task, His perfect plan includes the resources to do it: strength, action, and courage. Sermon for deacon ordination service.

We have been burning fuel very rapidly. Coal, oil, natural gas .. we are consuming it. It is irreplaceable. Some scientists say that unless we change our ways, we are going to burden our children and our grandchildren with a very serious energy problem. The next generation will inherit a burden ...read more

Scripture: 1 Chronicles 28:20-21

Denomination: Baptist

Heavenly Minded, Earthly Good Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 9, 2003

Introductory sermon to a series on the Purpose-Driven Life: the world says life’s purpose is having things or impressing people. But we are empowered when we use our lives for the purposes for which they are intended.

The choir began to sing, “This earth is not my home”, and I began to be uncomfortable. The more they chanted, the more I squirmed. “This earth is not my home, I am a stranger here, but I am bound for heaven, whence I shall never roam.” Well, yes and no. It is true that this earth is not our ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

In A Better Place

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 26, 2003

For Remembrance Sunday, when we honor the memories of those who have died in the previous year: Those who suffer loss go to a better place emotionally when they cast off unproductive patterns and allow themselves time to receive unconditional love. They

There is something we say to console ourselves when someone dies. It is a phrase I have heard over and over. We say,“I know she is in a better place.” My friend, my parent, my spouse has passed away, but it feels good to think of one truth: “He is in a better place.” By that, of course, ...read more

Scripture: Acts 18:1-23

Denomination: Baptist

It Would Have Been Enough

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 3, 2003

Memorial service sermon for Lillie Mae Scales Fontaine, who died on Easter Sunday

Lillie Mae Scales Fontaine went through an open door on Easter Sunday morning. I cannot imagine a better time to die than that day, can you? Just imagine – on the very day when much of the Christian world is focused on an empty tomb and on the promise of life everlasting, Lillie Fontaine ...read more

Scripture: Numbers 11:21-23

Denomination: Baptist

"Endless Love" Is Not A Maudlin Song Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 4, 2003

Radical discipleship is self-giving for the sake of the world, and not self-satisfaction nor giving only to those who please us.

When you learn to sing, you must learn to sing scales. Scales start with “do” on the low end and you step up until you get to “do” again, where the frequency exactly doubles the one where you started. That’s a scale. The syllables that you sing come from a medieval Spanish ballad. “Do re mi ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 1:9-21

Denomination: Baptist

An End To Childish Ways Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 4, 2003

(For Senior Adult Sunday) Children ask for things for themselves, think in limited terms, and believe they can escape responsbility. Mature people think in terms of love.

“If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” And if I ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:11

Denomination: Baptist