Sermons on Joseph Ondu:

A Partnership Of Parental Prayer

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 27, 2010

Family healing starts when we name the problems honestly. Things may get worse before they get better. but ultimately Christ will heal when we pray even in fractured faith.

Clifton Park Baptist Church, Silver Spring, MD, June 18, 2006 When there is a problem to be solved, we will do everything to solve it except the thing that works best. Have you noticed that? When something needs to be fixed, we will try all sorts of complicated approaches. But the simplest and ...read more

Scripture: Mark 9:14-29

Denomination: Baptist

Absence Of Pain Or Pain Of Absence? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 9, 2008

We either want to disengage from conflict situations and save ourselves the pain, or we have to absorb the guilt of being absent and causing others pain. Trust an abundant God, who is able to take our pain and express abundant love.

We serve a God of abundance and not a God of scarcity. Ours is not a dilettante deity with nothing in His hands. Ours is the God who possesses the cattle on a thousand hills, who flung the stars into space, and who has made all things – all things. All things are made by Him and all things are ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Who Can Be Saved? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 11, 2008

Salvation seems elusive, whether it means personal peace, reconciliation, or productive life. Good Friday we see what God will do about that frustration.

I Everyone gets frustrated. In ways small or great, we feel the frustration of not being able to do what we want to do, not being able have what we want to have, not being able to achieve as we would want to achieve. Young people, by nature, dream great dreams. If you give them half a chance, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 19:16-26

Denomination: Baptist

A New Dimension Of Obedience

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 12, 2008

Dated 1985. Jesus saw that we live in a complicated age and are therefore called to love God with our minds as well as heart and soul and strength. Consider serious Biblical and theological study.

In order for you to understand fully what I am about to say, you would need to know my wife, and moreover, you would need to visit our backyard and find out that my wife is a wild flower nut. Now you will be very careful to get exactly what I said. I did not say, exactly, that my wife has lost her ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

When Good Things Happen To Bad People

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 9, 2009

Rewritten for Calverton Baptist Church: In a world of injustice, "bad" people get good things they do not deserve. But grace gives us gentle gifts, gives us the satisfaction of outwaiting our enemies, and allows us to wait for God’s justice.

I was in my office at Takoma Park church, and, as so often happened, someone stopped by to ask for help. The story was very much like most of the stories I had heard. He said that he just needed a few dollars to get by. Tomorrow there would be a job and, “Pastor, if you’ll just give me ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 23:1-6

Denomination: Baptist

Shakedown Spirit

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 9, 2009

The time has come to invest in our church facility so that it glorifies God and serves today’s circumstances. God has placed the resources among us and will be shaking us to let go and move toward excellence.

I hope you’ve noticed that I try to come at preaching from a wide variety of different angles. There are many aims I bring to the preaching task. Most of the time, of course, I am trying to work with you in seeing in the Scriptures something that will help you live out your daily life in the ...read more

Scripture: Haggai 2:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Diagnosing Your Heartburn

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 10, 2009

All of us get "heartburn" feelings over the questions "What is our world coming to?" and "What do I do with my life?". The risen Lord gives us better answers than we are able to develop on our own.

"Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?" Every now and then, when you’re tired, or you’ve worked too hard, or there’s been a lot of stress ... every now and then, do you get a strange, tight feeling in the chest? Do you sometimes feel peculiar, a little ...read more

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35

Denomination: Baptist

Struggling To Be A People Of Integrity

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 12, 2009

Preached 1989. A people of integrity will not act as though God is automatically on their side, apart from righteousness; and they will pay attention to the way in which leadership is chosen.

On this Independence Day weekend we think about our nation’s history, our nation’s life. As we do so I want to assure you that we will be wrestling with the word of God, not just scattering political opinions over the landscape like birdseed. I am not here as political pundit, but as a pastor and ...read more

Scripture: Hosea 8:1-7

Denomination: Baptist

It's Not About Power

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 13, 2008

For deacon ordination at Montgomery Hills Baptist Church: deacons are to be humble, secure, and serving, and thus to coach the whole church in Kingdom ways.

Power is what the world knows. You cannot live in the metro DC area without seeing that power is everything for this world. The power of a position in the government, where you can order people around like pawns on a chessboard. The power of access to huge sums of money, so that shopping sprees ...read more

Scripture: Luke 14:7-11

Denomination: Baptist

God's Own Among God's Strays

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 13, 2008

For the anniversary of the Lai Baptist Church of Gaithersburg, a Burmese congregation. You came as strangers, but God has made you His own. Now we American Christians, who have strayed from what we once were, need your passion among us.

Sometimes people of differing cultures fail to understand one another. Sometimes people with differing backgrounds cannot grasp what others are all about. So they end up hurting one another, when, really, they need one another. If you do not understand your neighbor, and if your neighbor is ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9-25

Denomination: Baptist

Getting Real With God Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 26, 2007

We treat God as though He were not present. Jesus shows us how to get real with God by admitting His feelings, by telling what He wanted, and by enlisting His friends in prayer, however inadequate. Montgomery Hills Baptist Church

We are not going to debate this morning whether there is or is not a God. That’s settled, I would think, in this room. The issue is not whether God is real, but whether we know how to get real with God. Let me play out a little scene with you. Picture a home in which there is a parent and a ...read more

Scripture: Mark 14:32-42

Denomination: Baptist

Three Score And Ten

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 12, 2009

For 1989, 70th anniversary of the church. Three Scriptures with the number "70" in them ... life includes pain and conflict; but we are to forgive without reservation; God knows the plans He has for the next 70 years of this church.

We’ve reached a milestone, a real milestone. Seventy years old. That’s a good long while. That is, in fact, a lifetime, according to one of the Scriptures I’m going to read, the typical, average lifetime of a human being. And it’s not too bad for an institution like a church. We’ve been here, ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 90:1-12

Denomination: Baptist

Faith, Freedom, And The Future

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 13, 2009

God is always giving the gift of freedom. In revolutionary times, value the past, know that the present is incomplete, step forward in faith for the future.

God is always ready to give the gift of freedom. The one thing you can be sure that God is always about is freedom, freeing His people from the things which hold them back. In every time and place, our God is working to give the gift of freedom. When He does that, we call it a revolution. We see ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:1-11

Denomination: Baptist

First Things First Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 14, 2009

Use what you have before you ask for more; put the work of the Lord first in your priorities; and expect the church itself to live in faith and with godly priorities.

It is very important to put first things first. It’s important to get things in the right order. If you don’t get first things first, life just does not work out right. For example, speech. Language is tricky, and if you don’t get the words in the right order, the meaning can be drastically ...read more

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-16

Denomination: Baptist

The Dawn's Early Light

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 15, 2009

Just as Key saw that the darkness is intense before the dawn, that during battle we see enough to know that our freedom is won, and that we are at our best when we claim freedom for others, so also at the empty tomb we learn of our freedom from sin.

At 9 o’clock the firing from the ships anchored in the harbor slackened and then stopped. It seemed as though the siege of the city might be over for the night. But an hour or so later 20 small beats set out, under cover of darkness, with a driving rain pelting down. Their oars muffled, they ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 5:1-14

Denomination: Baptist