Sermons on Josephs Brothers:

Wanted: Three Rooms, Open Windows

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 14, 2010

We all need a throne room, where we can maintain a measure of control and an upper room, where we can nourish our privacy. We will also have a den, a place of escape or of anxiety. The key to managing them all is the open windows of prayer.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC May 29, 1988 If anyone here should by chance be interested in a course in fiction writing, I have a suggestion to make. If you would like to learn to write fiction, real fables and tales, do not go to the community college. Do not waste your time at ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 6:1-23

Denomination: Baptist

Requirements? What About Grace?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 15, 2010

Rearranging Micah 6 shows us that Micah had characterized the religiosity of Judah in ways that are comparable to our religiosity. But justice, compassion, and the humble walk are much more than we expected, and are our responses to grace.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC August 24, 1986 Several years ago I went back to school for work on a graduate degree. Although I had been around schools and colleges and students all of my life, this was the first time in about a dozen years or so that I had actually enrolled in a ...read more

Scripture: Micah 6:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

Peacemaking Owns The Future

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 16, 2010

Our dedication to arms-building reflects our personal insecurity and our lack of faith. God is Lord of History and efforts to make peace build His Kingdom.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC May 3, 1987 It’s a great gift to be self-contained, to be so secure within your own person that whatever is happening around you just does not get to you and shake you. It's a great gift to have the presence of mind to focus on what you need ...read more

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

Denomination: Baptist

Aquarius: Pointing The Way

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 16, 2010

The anonymous water-carrier whom Jesus asked Peter and John to watch for is like a sure signpost because he was available for God's purpose, immune to ridicule, and credible.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC March 29, 1987 When you are lost and do not know the way, nothing is as reassuring as a timely and well-placed signpost. You are roiling down the highway and suddenly you come to a place where the sign says, "Road Closed Ahead - Detour". Aside from ...read more

Scripture: Luke 22:7-13

Denomination: Baptist

Becoming

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 17, 2010

The popular notion of "the spirit of Christmas" does not recognize that pain and suffering are involved. But the coming of Christ foreshadows His cross.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC December 2, 1984 Here it is only the second day of December, and already we are bombarded with Christmas carols in the stores. Already the annual countdown of only so many more shopping days until Christmas has taken on an urgent tone, and some of ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11

Denomination: Baptist

Be Still, My Foolish Heart

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 18, 2010

There is a worldwide awareness that God exists, but also a worldwide infection of sin. God in Christ comes to get our attention so that never can anyone say, in foolishness, that God is absent or does not matter.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC October 5, 1986 In some of the more strict religious communities there is the practice called “shunning.” When someone is shunned, usually because he or she has violated the moral code or has broken the way of behaving expected in that ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 14:1-7

Denomination: Baptist

The Hands Of The Living God

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 20, 2010

When we are unwilling to finish our spiritual growth, we are inviting judgment. We need to seek the counsel of others and remember and learn from our victories. The same hands that hold us in judgment are nail-scarred for mercy.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC March 9, 1985 My house, I’m afraid, is a museum of unfinished masterpieces. Unfinished masterpieces. In every room of the house, in every nook and cranny you will find unfinished masterpieces. Now that is not to say that I have found the last ...read more

Scripture: Hebrews 10:23-26

Denomination: Baptist

The Challenge Of Change

Contributed by Joseph Stapleton on Nov 24, 2010

CHANGE is one of the hardest things a church or a person can do, BUTIt is something God wants from us. No Growth occurs without change.

CHALLENGE TO CHANGE All my sermons use illustrations found on www.sermoncentral.com and ALL scripture is NIV unless noted otherwise) I once heard that God loves us just the way we are, BUT He refuses to let us stay that way. That could almost be confusing, God LOVES us, in spite of the many flaws ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 15:16-20

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

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

Kingdom Kindness

Contributed by Joseph Stapleton on Nov 30, 2010

Kindness is one thing lacking in the American church today, this sermon looks atsix characteristics of Kindness and teaches us how to be a kinder more compassionate people.

KINGDOM KINDNESS All my sermons use illustrations found at www.sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted. “A little lame boy was once hurrying to catch a train. In the press of the crowd he experienced real difficulty in manipulating his crutches, especially as he ...read more

Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

Available For Liberation

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 30, 2010

Revised for use in a very small church looking for a new direction: Moses became an effective liberator by asking three questions: "Who am I?" "Who are You?" and "What if?"

Broadview Baptist Church, Chesapeake, MD Sept. 3, 2006 Church is not just for you and me who are members of the church. Church is for others. Church is for the world out there. Freedom is not just for you and me who have accepted Christ. Freedom is for others. The free gift of salvation is ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

In Touch With Earth

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 1, 2010

Revision of earlier message. God calls us to remember that we are both physical and spiritual, and are therefore to be stewards of the earth as well as spiritually sound. The Table reminds of both our physical and spiritual sides and responsibilities.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC, October 6, 1985, World Communion Sunday No matter how sophisticated we may become, something in us reaches out for the soil, reaches out for our roots and stirs within us to claim a simpler, more basic way of life. I would just about bet that most of us ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31

Denomination: Baptist

In Touch With Earth

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 2, 2010

We are both physical and spiritual, and our calling is to be good stewards of both. The Lord's Table ably symbolizes this.

Calverton Baptist Church, Silver Spring, MD June 5, 1983 No matter how sophisticated we may become, something in us reaches out for the soil, reaches out for our roots and stirs within us to claim a simpler, more basic way of life. I would just about bet that most of us here do not think of ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31

Denomination: Baptist

The Sword Of Speech

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 2, 2010

If we have God's truth in our hearts, we must speak our witness. It is not good enough to remain silent. That word must be a word of love and it must be a word of justice. Martin Luther King exemplified this discipline.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC January 19, 1986 It was the spring of 1964, and I had to make a choice. I had to decide whether I would, in my very first year of ministry, do something which would create a bit of tension in the church, but which the students with whom I worked were ...read more

Scripture: Proverbs 12:17-18

Denomination: Baptist

The Women At The Tomb: Remember

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 3, 2010

The skepticism of the apostles, hearing the women's testimony of the resurrection, could have been prevented had they heeded the angels' admonition to remember what Jesus predicted would happen. So today when our witness is challenged or our desires to d

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC April 14, 1987, Easter The old vaudeville song proclaims, “Dearie, do you remember? Because if you remember, then you’re much older than I.” The idea seems to be that remembering is nothing to be proud of; the implication is that ...read more

Denomination: Baptist