Sermons on Josephs Brothers:

What Makes You Think You Can Come Here?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 17, 2010

Lent, 1986, Communion: We should never be intimidated from the Lord's Table by ritual, shame, or weakness. It is hosted by one who offers us mercy and grace, paid for by His blood; so come boldly.

In the South Africa of apartheid, I suppose, nearly anything is possible. And so I do not expect that this story, improbable as it sounds, is untrue. If anything, I expect it could be multiplied many, many times over. At any rate, the story is that one day an Afrikaner, one of the ruling class in ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 4:14-16

Denomination: Baptist

When Jesus Comes: No Respect Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 17, 2010

Christmas Eve 1988: When Jesus comes as an infant, there is no respect, for he is the child of an unwed mother and is poor. When Jesus comes to the end of his life, there is no respect. But He redeems His status and can redeem ours.

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield has made en entire career out of a single piece of business and a single punch line: "I don't get no respect". He will regale you with tales of his childhood, when the other kids used him as a punching bag and called him a host of unflattering names, and then he sums it ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25

Denomination: Baptist

Prayer And The Chronically Unhappy

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 21, 2010

For Reformation Sunday, October 1987: Job in the Old Testament and Luther in the Reformation Era were chronically unhappy people, but used that as a form of spiritual energy to drive them toward creative achievement and an honest personal faith.

It looks as though some people are just born to be unhappy. There are some people who are going to approach nearly everything with a complaint or a gripe, who are going to make a personal issue out of everything. Nothing is quite good enough, nothing quite satisfies. There are folks whose ...read more

Scripture: Job 6:8-13

Denomination: Baptist

From Faith To Power

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 23, 2010

After Christmas, 1985. We alone of creation know that we could be and should be more than we now are. In Christ and in his vulnerability we are empowered to change.

"To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." Power to become … If you ask what it is to be human, if you want to know what separates us as human beings from all other forms of life, one way you could answer the question would be to say that ...read more

Scripture: John 1:1-14

Denomination: Baptist

Two Thousand Years Of Patience

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 25, 2010

Lent, 1987: We are impatient for God to do something, but do not notice that already He is bringing aspects of the Kingdom, slowly but surely. Have faith and wait to see what He is certain to do.

When I was a boy of about eight or ten years old, I undertook a brief experiment in gardening. I was told that a particular piece of ground in our back yard was mine to use, and I was given some packages of seeds and a few instructions and set to work. Well, that morning I cleared that plot of ...read more

Scripture: James 5:7-11

Denomination: Baptist

To Know, To Obey, To Live

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 26, 2010

July 1988: God's way of life is not burdensome or negative or arbitrary. To know God's way and to do it is to have abundant life.

There is an old saying to the effect that what you don't know won't hurt you. I beg to differ. If it is true that what you don't know won't hurt you, then why don't we just let babies pop anything and everything into their mouths, just as they want to do? Obviously we know that some things will ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

One Bread, One Body, Many Idols

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Apr 27, 2010

Independence Sunday 1987: We are called to be a distinctive people within American culture, not to follow popular self-centered idolatries.

The trouble with going to Ridgecrest conference center for a week is that you tend to forget how diverse a nation we are. If you were to spend too long at a place like Ridgecrest, you would get to thinking that everybody was Baptist, and Baptist of the southern variety, that everybody gobbled ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:14-31

Denomination: Baptist

A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 2, 2010

Martin Luther King Birthday 1989: Solomon began with promise, but lost his identity and squandered his gifts. African-Americans and the church must recommit to solid teaching, to evangelizing, and to fighting the scourge of drugs, lest we waste a whole

There is a kind of presumptuousness involved when a white preacher stands to offer any words on this the anniversary of the birthday of Martin Luther King. It is audacious indeed, as Janice Williams pointed out when she was teaching our foreign mission study on South Africa about a month ago, for ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Fear, Love, Liberty

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 4, 2010

Independence Day 1986: Fear leads to oppression, and vice versa. We overcome our fears by discovering the love that empowers us in the sacrificial death of Christ.

I've noticed that what older people fear is very much like what small children fear. Older people fear going out alone into the darkness; they are afraid they cannot find their way, they are afraid they may have some kind of difficulty and will be vulnerable to people with evil intentions. ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 4:13-21

Denomination: Baptist

Hardening Of The Hearteries

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 8, 2010

October 1986: We are like Pharaoh; we become stubborn when our plans do not go as we expected, and we attempt to force our way. But the difference between being merely good and being great is to be radically obedient to God's will.

The physicists used to speak of the hypothetical question: what happens when an irresistible force meets an immoveable object? What happens when a force defined as beyond the capacity of anything to resist it comes into collision with an object so firmly fixed, so deeply rooted, that it can, by ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Can't Shake Off Mom's Voice

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 11, 2008

For Mother’s Day and Pentecost: We cannot shake off our mother’s voice. That voice needs to be one of faith, not just admonition. Yet we need to grow our own faith. The Spirit’s voice overrides all negatives.

Can you, in your own mind, hear your mother’s voice? Can you remember not only what she says or used to say, but how she says it? Many of us can remember those things. Even people whose mothers died young can remember distinctive things. It seems we can’t quite shake off Mom’s voice. It stays ...read more

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:1-7

Denomination: Baptist

Getting On God's Agenda

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 16, 2007

God’s agenda is to give freedom to the oppressed, and He will not be stopped. But our disobedience can frustrate Him. The church needs to get on God’s agenda quickly.

A little book called “Kids’ Letters to Pastors” provides some fertile ground this morning for us to begin thinking about getting on God’s agenda. You see, you and I know the words we are supposed to say, whether we mean them or not. But kids say what they think, without editing. And so I suspect ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 6:1-13

Denomination: Baptist

What Do These Stones Mean? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 31, 2008

For a Children’s Day message; twelve varying stones used as visuals to speak of original innocence, sin and accountability, and the redemptive work of Christ.

For centuries, people have raised up stones as a witness. Stone monuments testify as to who they are and what happened among them. Just this week news came of discoveries at the ancient monument of Stonehenge on the Salisbury plain in England. Those great Sarsen stones were raised to honor the ...read more

Scripture: Joshua 4:8-24

Denomination: Baptist

Caring With A Difference

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 30, 2007

A Labor Day message on providing caring services, but not simply as self-fulfillment, but as a means to witness.

The true test of whether what you are doing is real is not how you feel about it when you start. The true test is whether you can keep going and complete your task. Anybody can get excited about a new job. But not everybody can stay by the stuff and finish. Some people get bored, or ...read more

Scripture: John 4:31-38

Denomination: Baptist

Thelema: Thelma's And God's

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Sep 12, 2007

Funeral message for Thelma Green Mann, known for her direct manner and strong will. The name Thelma is derived from the Greek, "Thelema", meaning will. A turning point is reached when one no longer focus on her own will, but on God’s will. Takoma Park

Grandchildren will teach you much about life. One of mine, Jackie, age 5, taught me about human nature recently. My wife and I had gone to take care of the girls while their parents were away, and we came, as always, armed with things to do – arts and crafts, games, books, the whole gamut of ...read more

Scripture: John 1:1-14

Denomination: Baptist