Sermons on Joseph Smith: showing 991-1,005 of 26,430

Peter: The Power Of Peer Pressure

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 5, 2010

Calverton Baptist Church, Silver Spring, MD, 1983: Our denials, like Peter's, reflect our confusing loudness with loyalty and our seeing ourselves as victims rather than victors. But Christ is able to look at us, evoke repentance, and turn us around.

The fire crackled in the crisp air, casting shadows on the walls not five yards away. It looked inviting, this bonfire, for not only was the night air chilly, but also this whole episode had been so draining, so terrifying, that the body cried out for comfort, for something, anything, that would ...read more

Scripture: Luke 22:31-62

Denomination: Baptist

May Day Mayday

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 11, 2010

We are called to turn the world upside down, as revolutionaries. But our energies dissipate and we become frightened. Let us look to the one who did not flinch from His mission.

The winter of 1780 and 1781 had looked bleak indeed for the American cause. If the English control of the seas continued; if the French did not move more decisively to help; if the supply arsenals could not be stocked and if the men did not keep their courage, all would be lost. Even General ...read more

Scripture: Acts 17:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Dynamic Tension Body Building Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 18, 2010

Montgomery Hills Baptist Church: As the old Charles Atlas method used muscle against muscle to build young bodies, so the church may use its forces against the values of the world to build itself. Inclusion rather than clannishness, love rather than comp

If you are male and of a certain age, you will remember the little cartoon stories that ran in every comic book or came wrapped around your Bazooka bubble gum – stories about a 97-pound weakling who was always about to approach a curvaceous bathing beauty but was invariably upstaged by a ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 3:7-21

Denomination: Baptist

A Humble Walk

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 25, 2010

FBC Gaithersburg: funeral for Julia McNeely Vance, centenarian, physician, daughter of Irish Baptists. Text and poem requested by family. Julia's commitments, nurtured early, brought her into an unusual life. Not delivered by me because of illness.

That classically Irish face looks out at me from the printed page, and I wonder what it must have been like for Julia McNeely, born a century ago, to have grown up and to have followed her calling. On one side were all the customs and expectations of her day and time … that women would live ...read more

Scripture: Micah 6:6-8

Denomination: Baptist

How To Tell The Truth

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 25, 2010

Monologue, as if the speaker were James, illustrating points by incidents in the life of Jesus. Truth comes with compassion, it does its own convicting, and must be backed with a life of integrity.

One of the peculiarities of the letter of James is that it has so very little direct reference to the life of Jesus. If it was written, as has traditionally been believed, by the James who was the brother of our Lord and who became prominent in the Jerusalem church, then it does seem odd that he ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Healed Hearts Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2010

The fearful heart cannot accept what God offers; but the healed heart receives freedom from shortcomings, confidence before the world, and liberty from becoming a controller of others.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC; November 23, 1986 By now you are probably weary of heart, this several weeks of dealing with what I have called, "heart diseases." By now you may have felt that everything that could be said about the heart in a Biblical reference had been said, maybe ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Hitting Rock Bottom: The Younger Brother

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2010

The prodigal succumbed to temptations all of us face: money, sex and power. He survived because he stopped denying his reality and received the grace of the father.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC June 26, 1988 It is frequently said about alcoholics that they have to hit rock bottom before they can be helped. The usual understanding is that because of the nature of the disease, the behavior called alcoholism, the person who suffers as a ...read more

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

Denomination: Baptist

Rising, Running, And Reporting

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 21, 2010

For many, life is a panicky run. Serious things happen to us, and we run to tell somebody. The reaction may be to go home and do nothing, and to leave others weeping and perplexed. But when we encounter the risen Christ personally, not as an abstractio

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC, March 26, 1989 (Easter Sunday) When you see someone running, do not jump to any conclusions about why that person is running. If you see somebody pickin’ ‘em up and layin’ ‘em down, well, there could be a lot of reasons why. And ...read more

Scripture: John 20:1-18

Denomination: Baptist

An Unfinished Symphony

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 22, 2010

We start the new year thinking it will be much like the last and that we will not finish all those things we have started. But there is more beauty in being unfinished than in being complete; for in Christ we can grow and become what He wants us to be.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC December 29, 1985 I have told you before, I believe, that I am an inveterate list-maker. I believe I have mentioned that my way of working and of setting daily work priorities is to build lists, long, elaborate, detailed lists of things ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 3:4-16

Denomination: Baptist

Up A Tree And Out On A Limb

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 22, 2010

Dramatic monologue, as if Zacchaeus were telling his story. His life was "up a tree", in trouble. He went "out on a limb" to receive the welcome and the salvation offered by Jesus.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC October 30, 1988 Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree, the savior for to see.” Oh ... good morning, good morning. Almost didn't see you there. In fact, I've missed a lot of things, ...read more

Scripture: Luke 19:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

Despising The Lord's Table

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 24, 2010

The New Year brings with it a sense that here we are again, doing the same old things, even in worship. But the prophet warns us that weariness in worship comes from offering God less than our best.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC January 3, 1988 Prominent in Greek mythology there is the story of Sisyphus. Sisyphus, you may remember, was the poor lost soul who had been condemned to spend eternity heaving and shoving a huge rock up to the top of a hill, only to have it roll ...read more

Scripture: Malachi 1:6-14

Denomination: Baptist

Deposits In The Heart

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 24, 2010

Sin in the human heart is addictive and destructive. But Christ can create a new and life-giving deposit in the heart.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC October 19, 1986 Only this week they drove another nail in my coffin. Those tireless, relentless researchers who ferret out the causes of cancer and who puzzle out the hows and the whys of heart disease published findings designed to frighten ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Fear And Integrity

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 25, 2010

Done as three monologues: fear compromises integrity, and a compromised integrity breeds more fear.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC July 13, 1986 Human beings are creatures plagued with fears and insecurities. That we have clearly established, that we talked about in certain ways last week. Of course we are a great deal more than that too. We are vastly more than a bundle of ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 20:1-20

Denomination: Baptist

Fear, Death, Life

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 26, 2010

It may seem strange to embrace death. But John could do so as he learned of fellow believers being killed, because he had a vision of the risen Christ as lord of life and death and even as lord of all human history.

Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC July 27, 1986 The picture is indelibly etched on my memory, I'm sure because at the time the incident seemed so bizarre, so peculiar. The scene was an elementary school talent show; all of us had been groomed and polished and persuaded that we had ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 1:4-18

Denomination: Baptist

A Bookkeeping Nightmare

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 27, 2010

Forgiveness is an act of understanding how much God has forgiven us; of the heart, making a changed spirit possible; and of the will, opening up all that God wants to do in us.

First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg, MD, October 4, 1979; Cresthill Baptist Church, Bowie, MD, June 8, 1980; Calverton Baptist Church, Silver Spring, MD, May 16, 1982; Takoma Park Baptist Church, Washington, DC November 24, 1985 Back in my early teen years I was a Monopoly freak. Not an ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 18:23-35

Denomination: Baptist