Sermons on Josephs Coffin:

I Know Where I Need To Be Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 17, 2002

We neither know where we are in our lives, nor where we need to be. But, like Job, we want to break out of the limits, we must take risks, and we learn to locate in trust of God and there to find that where are now is indeed where we need to be!

“Watch where you plant your feet!” That’s the command I hear every time I help with the garden. “Watch where you plant your feet!” My job is to clear out winter’s debris, the dead leaves and old twigs. I am to open up the flower beds for spring. To do that I have to step into the ...read more

Scripture: Job 13:1-27, 2 Timothy 1:12

Denomination: Baptist

Declare If You Know Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 24, 2002

The Palm Sunday crowds, like Job’s friends, shouted their slogans too glibly, communicating only popularity and prejudice, substituting religiosity and mere activity for knowing Jesus personally.

Declare if you know. Declare. Interesting word, “Declare”. It suggests that when we communicate, there are a variety of levels at which we can speak. There are different intensities we can use when we want to say something. Some folks merely suggest. They offer timid little ideas ...read more

Scripture: Job 38:1-27

Denomination: Baptist

I Know Your Schemes Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 29, 2002

Poetic reflection for Maundy Thursday, in which the Jesus who is about to go to the cross tells His disciples that He knows their schemes to harm, their unwillingness to travel difficult roads, and their failure to accept the burden of testimony, so that

"Oh, I know your thoughts, and your schemes to wrong me. ... Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony?” ‘Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me." They began to be distressed and to say to him one ...read more

Scripture: Job 21:27-29, Mark 14:18-20

Denomination: Baptist

What Do You Know? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 29, 2002

An imaginative reconstruction of the dialogue between the repentant and unrepentant thieves, to be spoken by two preachers. Focuses on the old dilemma, whether God hears prayer.

Unrepentant Thief (U): "Should the wise answer with windy knowledge, and fill themselves with the east wind? Should they argue in unprofitable talk, or in words with which they can do no good? ... What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to ...read more

Scripture: Luke 23:32-43

Denomination: Baptist

I Know My Redeemer Lives Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 30, 2002

Beyond all of the cultural reasons to come to Easter worship, we come to know that our lives are anchored. But it’s hard to know. Job points the way by affirming a redeemer despite the lack of evidence. Today we know a living redeemer, life changer.

 I If I were to ask you why you’ve come here today, how would you answer? Tell the truth, now; you’re in church. What do you expect and why are you here today? I’d guess that a number of us would give out what Mayor Williams calls the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 24:11-12, Job 19:23-27

Denomination: Baptist

Purple Passion

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 22, 2001

We can become passionate about Kingdom work if we will first listen eagerly to God’s word; then take a step of commitment (feelings follow facts and faith); and maintain the passion by surrounding ourselves with God’s people. Then we will prevail in our

Passionate people are frightening, and yet I admire them. I like passionate people, whose feelings run very deep. But they are scary. They remind me that it is possible to go out of control and to commit to things so intensely that we lose sight of everything else. That scares me. That sort ...read more

Scripture: Acts 16:11-15

Denomination: Baptist

Paying Our Spiritual Debts

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 4, 2001

Debt can be a good thing, spiritually; we owe debts to those who have shaped us, both negatively and positively, and pay that back by sharing in mutual respect and by offering the good news to a generation yet to come.

How do you feel about debt? Do you like debt? Do you take pleasure in interest payments? How many of you say, “Oh, Mr. Greenspan, please don’t lower the interest rate again. I want to pay more. I love debt.” Can I get a show of hands? I thought not. You don’t like debt. I don’t like ...read more

Scripture: Romans 1:8-17

Denomination: Baptist

Eleventh Hour Peace

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 11, 2001

Peace seems so elusive; the armistice signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month was not permanent, and now we are dealing with the 11th of September. But we are never more near deliverance than when our troubles deepen, and we can wait ac

Peace! What an elusive thing peace is! Most of the time, we don’t have peace. And when we get it, we cannot keep it. Peace is hard to come by and even harder to keep. In a railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne, in France, gathered representatives of imperial Germany and of the allied ...read more

Scripture: John 16:16-33

Denomination: Baptist

How Did All This Happen?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 26, 2001

For the Festival of Christ the King, and in celebration of a round of studying Blackaby’s "Experiencing God". God empowers His church by cutting away barriers, supplying resources, and giving His own presence.

This morning I invite you to a football game. Thanksgiving Day wasn’t enough! I see the men grinning and I hear the women groaning. What, football, again, even at church? But imagine this morning a very peculiar football game. On one side you have our Redskins. The Redskins of the last ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 45:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

Distant Country, Better Country

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 1, 2001

Funeral message for Michael Keys, age 36, whose parents requested a message from the parable of the Prodigal Son

In my study there hangs a reproduction of a sixteenth century map. My son gave it to me several years ago. He knows that I have always liked maps. I like to look at maps, study maps, even sketch maps myself. There is something fulfilling about seeing how things are laid out, how streets and ...read more

Scripture: Luke 15:11-24, Hebrews 11:16

Denomination: Baptist

What Do You Want On Your Tombstone?

Contributed by Joseph Johnson on Oct 18, 2000

I went to Crown Hill Cemetary Thursday and walked around.

I went to Crown Hill Cemetary Thursday and walked around. Everywhere you look there are grave markers, tombstones, and monuments. As I walked through the cemetary I thought of members of the church whose graves are at crown hill Cemetary, and I thought about some of the words that I and others ...read more

Scripture: Luke 24:1-12

Laughing Away The Burdens

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 4, 2000

Abraham laughed in the cynicism of old age; Sarah laughed in the denial that defends against what is inevitable; but beyond both of them God laughed in joy at the triumph of His purposes, fulfilled in two aged followers.

You have heard it said, “He who laughs last, laughs best.” Let me expand on that: I may laugh, you may laugh, but God will have the last and best laugh, for God’s purposes will be served. Laughter. There are all sorts of reasons to laugh. Some will laugh out of frustration; unable to do what ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 17:15-17, Genesis 18:10-15, Genesis 21:1-7

Denomination: Baptist

Do I Really Have A Choice?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 4, 2000

When we are offered great choices, although we think we have no real freedom, we can choose to live emotionally, we can choose to give and affirm life for the most vulnerable in our society, and we can always choose to receive God’s gift of eternal life.

“Do I really have a choice?” That question was posed the other day by one of our teenagers. She was talking about whether she had to go to school. She felt cornered. She felt boxed in. She was speaking for a great many of us. We feel as though we really do not have any choice about many ...read more

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Denomination: Baptist

Where Peace Begins Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 10, 2000

Peace begins in the heart, and is not imposed from outside, for discord also begins within; but in a committed relationship there is a matrix for genuine peace.

It had been a long, tiring day. A day full of frustrations. Plans so carefully laid in the morning had been forcefully set aside by evening. Good intentions for a day of accomplishment had been ruthlessly destroyed by many intrusions. Now it was night, and cold, and lonely. No one around. No ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 37:1-11

Denomination: Baptist

Peace: Ready, Set, Go Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 27, 2000

To gain peace in stressful times, we need, like the shepherds of Bethlehem, to be ready and open to God’s doing new things; to set out promptly to respond to God’s action; and to go back into our normal course of life, but with a difference.

These are stressful days. There is too much going on. Too much. Too much work, too much to think about, too many demands, too much. Why, we have to shop and bake and decorate and plan parties and send cards and on and on. Too much. Stressful. Too much traveling. I heard an astonishing ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Denomination: Baptist