Sermons on Joseph Freidman:

Feelings, Prayer And Victory

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 15, 2009

September 1989: We can work through our feelings to victory if we are totally honest with God about what we feel, and then if we are able to praise Him joyfully when we are released.

Recently a television reporter followed up on the people who survived that air travel incident in which a huge section of the plane simply tore off, somewhere near Hawaii. You may remember that there was some kind of metal fatigue and a whole section of the plane suddenly broke out and about nine ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 38:1-20

Denomination: Baptist

First Stumbling Steps Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 16, 2009

We cannot live our lives without the guidance and companionship of Christ; but then, when we have that guidance, we will either share it for others’ benefit or we will let them stumble in the darkness.

Without question one of the most challenging periods of parenting is that time when a baby is first learning to walk. This is the time when you have to work at child-proofing the house. You put barriers across the stairs; you put stoppers in all the electrical outlets; you hide as many wires as you ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 2:3-11

Denomination: Baptist

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

Practicing Patience

Contributed by Joseph Stapleton on Oct 14, 2010

The Bible tells us many ways we can practice the spiritual fruit of patience, this sermon deals with three tings we must do in order to display the fuit of patience.

PRACTICING PATIENCE (All me sermon use illustrations found at www.sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted) Many times I pray for Wisdom - to understand my teenagers; Love - to forgive them; Patience - for their mood swings; Because, Lord if I pray for Strength, ...read more

Scripture: James 1:2-4

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Healed Hearts Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2010

The fearful heart cannot accept what God offers; but the healed heart receives freedom from shortcomings, confidence before the world, and liberty from becoming a controller of others.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC; November 23, 1986 By now you are probably weary of heart, this several weeks of dealing with what I have called, "heart diseases." By now you may have felt that everything that could be said about the heart in a Biblical reference had been said, maybe ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Hitting Rock Bottom: The Younger Brother

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2010

The prodigal succumbed to temptations all of us face: money, sex and power. He survived because he stopped denying his reality and received the grace of the father.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC June 26, 1988 It is frequently said about alcoholics that they have to hit rock bottom before they can be helped. The usual understanding is that because of the nature of the disease, the behavior called alcoholism, the person who suffers as a ...read more

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

Denomination: Baptist

Twas The Night Before . . . ?

Contributed by Joseph Stapleton on Oct 21, 2010

On Halloween it seems fitting to speak about Hell, this sermon shows that Hell is a choice, there are no second chances there and Heaven is a much better choie.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE . . . (All my sermons use illustrations found at www.sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted) Today is Halloween, the night before what has been called “All Saints Day” a supposed time to pray and remember the dead. The History of this ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 25:41-46

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Rising, Running, And Reporting

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 21, 2010

For many, life is a panicky run. Serious things happen to us, and we run to tell somebody. The reaction may be to go home and do nothing, and to leave others weeping and perplexed. But when we encounter the risen Christ personally, not as an abstractio

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC, March 26, 1989 (Easter Sunday) When you see someone running, do not jump to any conclusions about why that person is running. If you see somebody pickin’ ‘em up and layin’ ‘em down, well, there could be a lot of reasons why. And ...read more

Scripture: John 20:1-18

Denomination: Baptist

An Unfinished Symphony

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 22, 2010

We start the new year thinking it will be much like the last and that we will not finish all those things we have started. But there is more beauty in being unfinished than in being complete; for in Christ we can grow and become what He wants us to be.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC December 29, 1985 I have told you before, I believe, that I am an inveterate list-maker. I believe I have mentioned that my way of working and of setting daily work priorities is to build lists, long, elaborate, detailed lists of things ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 3:4-16

Denomination: Baptist

Up A Tree And Out On A Limb

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 22, 2010

Dramatic monologue, as if Zacchaeus were telling his story. His life was "up a tree", in trouble. He went "out on a limb" to receive the welcome and the salvation offered by Jesus.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC October 30, 1988 Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree, the savior for to see.” Oh ... good morning, good morning. Almost didn't see you there. In fact, I've missed a lot of things, ...read more

Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Despising The Lord's Table

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 24, 2010

The New Year brings with it a sense that here we are again, doing the same old things, even in worship. But the prophet warns us that weariness in worship comes from offering God less than our best.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC January 3, 1988 Prominent in Greek mythology there is the story of Sisyphus. Sisyphus, you may remember, was the poor lost soul who had been condemned to spend eternity heaving and shoving a huge rock up to the top of a hill, only to have it roll ...read more

Scripture: Malachi 1:6-14

Denomination: Baptist

Deposits In The Heart

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 24, 2010

Sin in the human heart is addictive and destructive. But Christ can create a new and life-giving deposit in the heart.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC October 19, 1986 Only this week they drove another nail in my coffin. Those tireless, relentless researchers who ferret out the causes of cancer and who puzzle out the hows and the whys of heart disease published findings designed to frighten ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Fear And Integrity

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 25, 2010

Done as three monologues: fear compromises integrity, and a compromised integrity breeds more fear.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC July 13, 1986 Human beings are creatures plagued with fears and insecurities. That we have clearly established, that we talked about in certain ways last week. Of course we are a great deal more than that too. We are vastly more than a bundle of ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 20:1-20

Denomination: Baptist

Fear, Death, Life

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 26, 2010

It may seem strange to embrace death. But John could do so as he learned of fellow believers being killed, because he had a vision of the risen Christ as lord of life and death and even as lord of all human history.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC July 27, 1986 The picture is indelibly etched on my memory, I'm sure because at the time the incident seemed so bizarre, so peculiar. The scene was an elementary school talent show; all of us had been groomed and polished and persuaded that we had ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 1:4-18

Denomination: Baptist

A Bookkeeping Nightmare

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 27, 2010

Forgiveness is an act of understanding how much God has forgiven us; of the heart, making a changed spirit possible; and of the will, opening up all that God wants to do in us.

First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg, MD, October 4, 1979; Cresthill Baptist Church, Bowie, MD, June 8, 1980; Calverton Baptist Church, Silver Spring, MD, May 16, 1982; Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC November 24, 1985 Back in my early teen years I was a Monopoly freak. Not an ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 18:23-35

Denomination: Baptist