Sermons on Joseph Phillips:

Blood And The One Blood

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 31, 2010

All of us are more alike than we are different, even those who are well outside our values. We need to see the broken as brothers and sisters in search of God, and to feel urgency about reaching them.

If blood is supposed to be thicker than water, meaning that we have a primary responsibility to our families, then I guess we had better know who our families are. I guess we’d better know who our blood kin are if blood is thicker than water, as the saying goes, and there is some kind of special ...read more

Scripture: Acts 17:22-31

Denomination: Baptist

Bread Of Adversity, Cup Of Affliction, Begone!

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 2, 2010

For Black History Month: The "world the slaves made" (Genovese) was one they chose to make, seeing hope and possibility in what God had done and in following the Teacher, Christ. He ate the bread of adversity and drank the cup of affliction, but rose in

By the light of the flickering bonfire you could see them. Gathering from the little cabins down by the creek, coming up the road from the brush arbor, a few of them on a creaky old wagon pulled by two mules. Something exciting was happening here tonight! Their laughter told you, too, that this ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 30:18-22

Denomination: Baptist

Breakthrough For Joy

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 2, 2010

Every now and then something happens, after a long struggle, to give us a breakthrough. So with God in Christ, planning from the foundation of time for the cross and achieving a breakthrough victory at the empty tomb. So count nothing impossible.

Every now and again, in human history, we achieve a breakthrough. Something which we have worked for, hoped for, fought and died for, finally happens. There has been struggle and agony and seemingly endless defeat, but suddenly it all works out. That’s called a breakthrough. You know the feeling. ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 61:1-3

Denomination: Baptist

All Ye Jigs And Juleps, Praise The Lord

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 3, 2010

The whole created order finds joy in the coming of Christ. It’s time we truly celebrated, either by doing something good for ourselves or by helping someone else.

The psalm which we just read together was paraphrased many years ago by Archbishop Cranmer as a great hymn of praise, used for generations in the Church of England. Its Latin name is "Benedicite omnia opera": "Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord". This hymn is a long recitation of many of ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 148:1-14

Denomination: Baptist

Being And Telling The Good News

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 5, 2010

To tell the good news, one must BE good news. It can start in the home, with marriage; with children; and with the children and youth of the community.

You must be good news before you can tell good news. You must be good news before can tell good news. If you have a story to tell, and it’s supposed to be good news, it won’t make any sense unless you sound like a good news person. There used to be a character on the Saturday cartoons. His name ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

What More Can You Ask?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 19, 2009

What keeps us from fulfilling Jesus’ "So send I you" mandate? Lack of information? There is the Bible. Motivation? Forgiveness is critical for all. No personal experience with Christ? Now is the time for a fresh encounter. Montgomery Hills Baptist

Some of us live in a state of perpetual unreadiness. No matter what happens, we think we are not ready. Notice how I put that. We THINK we are not ready. We may have plenty of stuff in our old kit bags. We may have assembled all that we need to accomplish whatever we are about to do, but the ...read more

Scripture: John 20:19-31

Denomination: Baptist

Hands

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 21, 2009

To a church which has prided itself on its accumulated resources, but which now faces austerity, God says that if we do not fear but trust Him, we are enough to get Him the victory.

Hands. You have two hands. A right hand and a left hand, two hands. They are the most versatile parts of the human body, the places where our creativity is expressed, the instruments through which we register emotions, the tools we use to earn our daily bread. Hands. What a wonderful gift are our ...read more

Scripture: Judges 7:1-22

Denomination: Baptist

He Had To Rise

Contributed by Joseph Stapleton on Apr 21, 2009

Easter is a time of HOPE in a world sadly lacking

He HAD To Rise! (All my sermons use illustrations from sermon central.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted) (We showed a video from the “Passion of Christ” entitled “Beautiful Savior” just before I preached.) “Jesus your nailed scarred hands are beautiful, and your nailed scarred ...read more

Scripture: John 1:9

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

His Poverty, Our Wealth

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 22, 2009

Ours are uncertain times, like those into which Jesus came. But God in Christ invested for the long haul and pours Himself into something risky. So therefore can we.

These are uncertain times. And in uncertain times uncertain people do irrational things, destructive things. People who are drifting, people who have no anchor, people who have no center - in uncertain times, such people do things which destroy. The pages of the calendar are turning toward ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:9

Denomination: Baptist

Recognizing What Time It Is

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 23, 2009

There is nothing so fulfilling as good timing, nothing so embarassing as bad timing. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was wonderful for some, judgment time for others. What time is it for us? (MLK assassination anniversary)

There is nothing quite so fulfilling as good timing. And nothing quite so embarrassing as bad timing. They say that the secret in being a comedian is good timing. Well, the secret in living is good timing. Quite a few years ago, a young lady in whom I was more than slightly interested had to be ...read more

Scripture: Luke 19:36-44

Denomination: Baptist

Reform, Revival, Or Renewal

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 24, 2009

(Reformation Sunday). It is good to reform how we do church, using the Bible as our basis; it is good to revive our spiritual energies. But best of all is to renew ourselves for mission.

My great-uncle, Ed Weber, drove an ancient car. I doubt if you’ve ever heard of its brand name. He drove a Terraplane. Anybody remember the Terraplane? Well, dearie, if you do, then you are much older than I, because my great-uncle’s Terraplane was already ancient when I was a boy. It had been ...read more

Scripture: Zephaniah 3:14-18

Denomination: Baptist

Remembering, Reconnecting, And Rejoicing: What God Gives To The Grieving Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 25, 2009

Grieving healthily means remembering both positive and negative; it means connecting with others who can love us and whom we can love. In His own time God will give joy.

One of the laws of life is: To get something, you must give up something. To gain, you must also lose. We call that the tradeoff principle. We operate on the tradeoff principle every day. When you go to the grocery store and fill your basket, they have the audacity to expect you to pay for what ...read more

Scripture: John 19:25-27

Denomination: Baptist

Remembering, Reconnecting, And Rejoicing: Taking Charge Of Our Own Grief Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 26, 2009

We take charge of reducing our grief when we first trust ourselves, then trust others in redemptive relationships, and ultimately trust God, who raised Christ from the dead.

Granger Westberg, in his little book, Good Grief, says that when you have something worth grieving about, then go ahead and grieve, but grieve in a healthy way. Westberg agrees that the Bible says, "Do not grieve as those do who have no hope", but that does not mean we do not grieve. When you have ...read more

Scripture: John 19:25-27

Denomination: Baptist

Invisible Man

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 27, 2009

As Ralph Ellison helped us see racism as one group treating another as invisible, so today we need to discern who is invisible to us; and we need to see how Jesus is invisible to many until He is connected to the culture and until we make Him visible.

"I am an invisible man." Those words, pecked out on an old typewriter one night in the Vermont hills, began a literary work of unparalleled beauty and power. Ralph Waldo Ellison; encouraged to make music and to write by his father; inspired by the civil rights activism of his mother, began to ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 53:1-6

Denomination: Baptist

Extreme Living

Contributed by Joseph Stapleton on Apr 28, 2009

In a world of Extreme life, we as Christians can live Extreme also

EXTREME LIVING Attitude is Everything (All my sermons use illustrations from Sermon Central and all Scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted) In our world there seems to be a need to take things to another level. When I was younger I enjoyed sports, now there is EXTREME sports. Our world is ...read more

Scripture: Nehemiah 8:10

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ