Sermons on Joseph Smith: showing 556-570 of 26,425

Gloria In Excelsis -- Deo

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 15, 2004

Ordination of a woman named Gloria; glory not in your achievements but in helping others seek God; glory not in defending yourself against predators but in receiving God’s protection; and let yourself feel passion.

Over the years I have developed the habit of focusing on a person’s name whenever it is time to do a message that relates to that individual. For example, I have done funerals for people named James, using something from the New Testament letter of James. I did a funeral service once for a woman ...read more

Scripture: 1 Chronicles 16:1-36, Luke 2:8-15

Denomination: Baptist

Not Yet Perfect

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 18, 2004

Funeral sermon for Doris Reynolds Parker, veteran teacher, civil rights worker, and mother, whose spirit of determination we can complete if we commit to justice, kindness and a walk with God.

Perfection is difficult to come by! No matter how good something is, it is always possible to find flaws. It is always possible to discover imperfections. When I was in engineering school, I took a class in drafting. My professor’s claim to fame was that he could, without a compass, ...read more

Scripture: Micah 6:5-8

Denomination: Baptist

What Stands In The Way?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on May 22, 2004

For Ascension Sunday; and in preparation for my retirement as pastor. What stands in our way? Exhaustion? Gather all, gather the marginalized, and pray. Planless? Remember our core values and do them. Lack of urgency? We are accountable to God.

When a leader and those he leads part company, we learn a whole lot about both of them. Their true values become apparent. The things they are really about become clear. There is no more game-playing when it is time for a leader and those he leads to part company. Sometimes they separate ...read more

Scripture: Acts 1:1-14, Acts 28:23-31

Denomination: Baptist

Seeing From The Very Least

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jun 5, 2004

Dramatic monologue, done as if Paul himself were preaching, with references to all of the Pauline corpus. P A U L equals Pray, Avoid, Understand, Love. Next to last sermon for this pastorate.

Caris kai eirene, carix kai eirene. Jesous cristos soter kurios. En Cristw, en cristw. Here! You challenge me? You challenge my presence and my right to speak? Am I not an apostle?! Am I not, though born of the wrong parents, nonetheless one whom God has chosen to proclaim His unsearchable ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 3:7-13

Denomination: Baptist

Jesus Chilling Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 10, 2002

Jesus understood when, how, and why to "chill": when His emotional energies had been drained; how to back off the need to be needed; and for the purpose of providing a still point of healing for others.

If there is any one thing that distinguishes my generation and later generations, like the Gen-xers, it is that we have totally different attitudes about work and play. We are light years apart about what we expect from work or what we want from play. People born before and during the ...read more

Scripture: Mark 6:45-56

Denomination: Baptist

Jesus In Love Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 18, 2002

Jesus, in dealing with sexual sin, did NOT make an object out of the woman involved, nor did He feel it necessary to do anything but give her space to work out her own spiritual issues. He DID determine that His aim was redemption, not shame, and He love

All these years of preaching and teaching, and no one has ever asked me why Jesus didn’t have a wife or a girl friend. No one has even so much as wondered out loud whether Jesus the man felt what most men feel. Are you afraid of that question? Or do you just suppose that, after all, ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Jesus Partying Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Nov 24, 2002

We have taken our cues about how to have fun from the wrong places. When Jesus parties, he includes rather than excludes the misfits; he goes not to participate nor to criticize, but to listen and redeem; and when you party with Jesus, you have joy and z

Suppose you gave a party and Jesus showed up! What would that do to your party? He wasn’t on the invitation list, He didn’t RSVP, but here He comes, making a beeline straight at you, with arms outstretched in greeting, and about twelve of his best buds looking eagerly at the buffet table. ...read more

Scripture: Luke 5:27-38

Denomination: Baptist

Strange Land, Foreign Land, Promised Land Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 1, 2002

A poetic, impressionistic rendering of Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, presented by two readers in dialogue

Every day is unique, every time is new. Never before have these same things happened, never again will this moment come. But the one who made this day, the one who is ever new, knows this moment. And knew that moment in which all things would be fulfilled. Each day is a gift. And each ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17

Denomination: Baptist

Freedom: Devotion Or Devouring?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Feb 11, 2007

Black History Month and Amazing Grace Sunday: there is much to celebrate about freedom, when we review history. But we either devote ourselves to freedom (political, social, spiritual) or we devour ourselves. Newton’s story illustrates. Montgomery Hill

It’s a glorious thing to discover that you are free. Freedom tastes good, smells good, feels good. But after you find out you are free, then what? What do you do with your freedom? There are only two answers to that question: freedom either leads you to devotion; or it drives you to devour. ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 5:13-15

Denomination: Baptist

That We May Flourish

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 10, 2006

God wants us to flourish. We plead dryness, incompleteness, or sin, but in the tiny infant of Bethlehem strengthening is coming. Hillandale Baptist Church, Adelphi, MD

I am persuaded that we are intended by our Creator to flourish. He created us to blossom and to grow. God wants our lives to be colorful, joyful, full. I am convinced that God does not intend for us to live like miserable little mice, afraid of our own shadows, scurrying for cover every time ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Presumption

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 9, 2007

Religion does not create a relationship with God, nor does ritual. It is refinement born of repentance that shapes that relationship. Repent, relate, and receive.

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Famous words supposedly spoken by journalist Henry Morton Stanley somewhere in Tanganyika at the end of his expedition to find the missing explorer. “I presume”. It means, “I think I know what I am doing. Would you please confirm it for me? You look like what I ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12

Denomination: Baptist

Acceptance And Rejection

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 25, 2007

We know what both acceptance and rejection feel like. What must God feel at our rejection of Him? In Jesus He turns around our rejection into His acceptance of us. We can accept our acceptance.

“He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” Do you have experience with both acceptance and rejection? I imagine you do. No one is so fortunate as to have had everything he wants, and so we have all experienced rejection. And no one is so hard-up that she has been ...read more

Scripture: John 1:1-18

Denomination: Baptist

Insults Or Joy? Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jan 11, 2008

Annas and Caiphas exhibit the truth that if we do not know God, we do not know ourselves. That produces insecurity, which, in turn, yields destructive defensiveness.

A riddle to begin with today. Can you answer this question? How do two porcupines hug one another? Very carefully! It’s one of those encounters in which, no matter how you approach it, somebody is likely to get hurt. And we all know some porcupines. Any one of us can be a porcupine on any ...read more

Scripture: John 18:12-24

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