Sermons on Joseph M Stowell:

All Your Diseases?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 5, 2010

For Labor Day Sunday, 1989; a focus on and prayer for those involved in the medical professions. God wants to heal us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The resurrection means that full healing is ultimately assured. Those who research and apply

God wants us to be well. Do you believe that? I do. God does not want us to be sick; our gracious, loving, Father has not wished disease upon us, nor has He orchestrated illness to punish us, nor does He target us with sickness in order to judge us. Our God wants us to be well. If you read ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 103:1-14

Denomination: Baptist

Bramble For President!

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 6, 2010

The politician who sells out to special interests and who has no regard for life is not worthy of our loyalty. We need to get involved in the political process with a servant mentality.

We have here in our church a long-standing tradition of the separation of church and state. We do not get involved in partisan politics. We do not support candidates, we do not give platforms to those running for political office. This sets us off from some other churches, where it is not at all ...read more

Scripture: Judges 9:1-21

Denomination: Baptist

All I Need Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 7, 2010

Jesus’ healing of the man born blind forced his disciples to rethink their theology, forced his neighbors to rethink their perception of him as victim, and forces us to rethink our posture toward healing ministries.

Have you noticed that when you get sick, you get sick all over? When some part of your body isn’t up to par, then the whole person, the whole self, feels bad. When we get sick, we get sick all over. Now you may speak of having an upset stomach, but it’s really an upset you. The physician might ...read more

Scripture: John 9:1-33

Denomination: Baptist

I Thirst

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 13, 2010

Fifth Word of a Seven-Last-Words service, summing up the first four as Jesus’ thirst for others, for salvation, for God, and finally for His own needs. Gethsemane Baptist Church, Washington, DC

True spirituality is to know that we have needs. It is only those who pose as ultra-spiritual who deny their needs. True spirituality is to need help, and to ask for it. Spiritual maturity means knowing when we are not adequate and knowing that it is all right to ask for help. It is only the ...read more

Scripture: John 19:28

Denomination: Baptist

Hurry Up And Wait

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 25, 2010

Funeral message for Thelma Harper Brown, who exhibited extraordinary patience during a long decline.

What must it feel like to spend every day waiting? Just waiting. Not going anywhere, not keeping appointments, not concerned about a schedule, but just waiting. Waiting through interminable days and dark nights; waiting to be fed, to be turned, to be spoken to. What must it feel like just to ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:18-39

Denomination: Baptist

Six Miles Of Obedience

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 25, 2010

Funeral message for Eva Myers, whose distinctive discipline was six miles of walking daily ... a metaphor for walking with Christ.

"Whoever obeys [God’s] word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ’I abide in him,’ ought to walk just as he walked." At first I didn’t believe it. Six miles a day?! How could anybody, especially one up in her years, ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 26:1-12

Denomination: Baptist

Stranger In A Strange Land

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 27, 2010

For Prayer Breakfast given by a Francophone African church. We must respond to immigrants because God commands it, our history demands it, it serves our own best interests, and the Gospel includes it.

Valentine Michael Smith was born on Earth, raised on Mars, and returned to Earth. He never felt fully at home in either place. But his interaction with Earth, when he returned as a young adult, transformed Earth culture and impacted many lives. His most important contribution to Earth was the ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 2:11-22

Denomination: Baptist

Peace Now

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 12, 2010

Funeral message for Matthew Jackson, a quiet man whose chief pleasure was to be among family and friends and who devoted himself to a disabled son.

There are two kinds of quiet people. There are those who are quiet because, to tell the truth, they have nothing to say! And then there are those who are quiet because they are simply content with what they know; they have no need to impress anyone else. There are two kinds of quiet people. Two ...read more

Scripture: James 3:13-18

Denomination: Baptist

All Things

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 14, 2010

Final message on the church's vision statement. Christ's lordship over all things means that there is nothing worthy that we can leave out of our work, but it will succeed if we are focused on Him and not on our own success.

At the very center of the Christian faith there is Christ. That sounds self-evident: it seems obvious. But we keep forgetting it. We keep on trying to live without a center. Think about a wheel which has no hub; if you try to roll that wheel, its spokes will collapse. And no church will hold its ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:28-39

Denomination: Baptist

A Dirty Altar

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 12, 2009

(Various objects on the altar). Our church altar is dirty with unresolved anger, put-downs, and prejudicial outreach. These things must be cleaned away before God accepts what we bring here.

Who says there’s nothing new under the sun? The pastor not accepting the offering! Lots of folks think that raising money is about all we ever do in church. Wish they could have seen that! But, you see, the problem is there isn’t any room up here on the altar. We have a dirty altar today. It’s ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

The Difference Between Withstanding And Standing

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 14, 2009

August 1989: We need both defensive and offensive weapons in order to be effective Christians. In the end, a strong offense, making a difference in our world, is also the best defense.

With the opening of the Redskins season only a few days away, I really do need to get something straight, and I thought maybe I could get some help this morning. There is a rule of thumb, a maxim of football strategy, and I cannot figure out how it goes. I need some help. Is it that the best ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20

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

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

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