Sermons on Joseph Smith: showing 1,126-1,140 of 26,431

A Complete Hunger

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 11, 2009

It’s healthy to feel hunger and thirst, and if these are never satisfied, health will deteriorate. To satisfy spiritual hunger, do something for the Kingdom and for others, and you will feel fulfilled.

Hunger is something we feel at every stage of life and every day of our lives. In fact, when you are no longer able to get hungry, you know you are very sick. Being hungry is a sign of health. Hunger is something felt by the youngest infant, from the very beginning. I had the rare chance this ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 5:6

Denomination: Baptist

A Dirty Altar

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 12, 2009

(Various objects on the altar). Our church altar is dirty with unresolved anger, put-downs, and prejudicial outreach. These things must be cleaned away before God accepts what we bring here.

Who says there’s nothing new under the sun? The pastor not accepting the offering! Lots of folks think that raising money is about all we ever do in church. Wish they could have seen that! But, you see, the problem is there isn’t any room up here on the altar. We have a dirty altar today. It’s ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

The Difference Between Withstanding And Standing

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 14, 2009

August 1989: We need both defensive and offensive weapons in order to be effective Christians. In the end, a strong offense, making a difference in our world, is also the best defense.

With the opening of the Redskins season only a few days away, I really do need to get something straight, and I thought maybe I could get some help this morning. There is a rule of thumb, a maxim of football strategy, and I cannot figure out how it goes. I need some help. Is it that the best ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20

Denomination: Baptist

Feelings, Prayer And Victory

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 15, 2009

September 1989: We can work through our feelings to victory if we are totally honest with God about what we feel, and then if we are able to praise Him joyfully when we are released.

Recently a television reporter followed up on the people who survived that air travel incident in which a huge section of the plane simply tore off, somewhere near Hawaii. You may remember that there was some kind of metal fatigue and a whole section of the plane suddenly broke out and about nine ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 38:1-20

Denomination: Baptist

First Stumbling Steps Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 16, 2009

We cannot live our lives without the guidance and companionship of Christ; but then, when we have that guidance, we will either share it for others’ benefit or we will let them stumble in the darkness.

Without question one of the most challenging periods of parenting is that time when a baby is first learning to walk. This is the time when you have to work at child-proofing the house. You put barriers across the stairs; you put stoppers in all the electrical outlets; you hide as many wires as you ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 2:3-11

Denomination: Baptist

Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 17, 2009

We damage ourselves as well as the others when we write off whole peoples through racism. When we see them as persons, with human faces, we discover that to write them off is to damage ourselves. Fellowship in Christ leads us to value difference.

A widow, shortly after her husband’s death, was going through his papers. She found a couple of old certificates, yellowed with age and crumbling into dust. They had been made out to her husband more than fifty years ago, and seemed to be some kind of promissory notes. Some sort of company had ...read more

Scripture: Esther 7:1-4

Denomination: Baptist

Fully Known

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 18, 2009

Healthy self-knowledge means that in Christ we know enough to be functional, and indeed our ignorance is the vehicle through which God conveys wisdom, for in Him we are fully known.

Charley Brown says to Lucy, still dispensing sage wisdom for the pre-inflationary price of five cents, "Nobody likes me, Lucy. Everybody hates my guts. Do you see that plane up there, Lucy? It’s a plane full of people going somewhere else. That’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to go somewhere else, ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:4-31

Denomination: Baptist

From Furnished Rooms To Fragrant Gardens

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 19, 2009

Now that this church has rebuilt its basic structure, it is time to go on and make it all work. To do so, go back to rediscover God’s intention for humanity and understand that the church is to restore the "garden."

One spiritual principle shows up over and over again in the Scriptures. One theme is repeated endlessly: and that is that the way to go forward is to go back. The way to move ahead with your life is to go back, to go back to its roots, go back to its foundations, where you discover what is valuable ...read more

Scripture: Hosea 14:1-9

Denomination: Baptist

Friend Of The Shut Out Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 20, 2009

We are not shut out: Jesus includes us by giving us knowledge, by giving us a place in His mission, and by paying the price to see that we are included in the Kingdom.

A number of years ago I saw a very provocative poster. It was a depiction of the doors of Washington. Nothing more than a series of doors, arranged in rows on the poster, probably twenty or twenty-five, all photographs of various doors in this city. Some of them were beautifully simple doorways ...read more

Scripture: John 15:12-17

Denomination: Baptist

Friend Of The Misunderstood Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 21, 2009

Misunderstand is accidentally or deliberate. Jesus dealt with the accidental by bringing witnesses, going to the root of the issue, and affirming the questioner; with the deliberate by refusing to make others happy, being true to Himself, letting actions

It’s easy to be misunderstood. Misunderstanding happens all the time. It is very, very easy to be misunderstood. One way to be misunderstood is to be vague and hazy. Just mumble under your breath and utter ambiguities, and I guarantee that you will be misunderstood. Some of you are devotees of ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 11:2-19

Denomination: Baptist

Friend Of The Full Heart Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 23, 2009

Christmas is a time for full hearts: weary, guilty, anxious, sad -- past, present, and future. Mary felt the same things, but Christ comes to forgive our past, empower our present, and assure our future.

Christmas is an emotional time. All kinds of feelings are involved with the celebration of Christmas. If you don’t feel some tension, some excitement, or some pressure, something at this time of the year, you are either dead or you’ve been watching the Redskins, which is about the same thing. ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Denomination: Baptist

Fresh Encounter

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 24, 2009

All of us need to hear God’s love in a fresh way. Some say they do not want an encounter, but they do. Some do not expect anything new. Some are just past their first thrill of knowing Christ. Some have never exercised faith. Christ waits to receive

Just about everybody ought to get married, at least once. There’s nothing quite like it in all the world. Everybody ought to have the experience of learning the difference between fantasy and reality. That’s what happens when you get married. Everything up to marriage is fantasy. It’s romance, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 9:14-17

Denomination: Baptist

Frantic Work Or Focused Life

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 26, 2009

Wisdom lies in knowing when to be busy and when to be reflective. Both Martha and Mary wanted the affirmation of Jesus. But it always comes by grace alone.

Author Sam Keen, in his provocative little book called Apology for Wonder, tells us the lesson he learned as young boy swimming in the Indian River inlet on the Delaware coast. Keen says that swimming there was very tricky, because the outgoing waters from the bay met the incoming tides waves from ...read more

Scripture: Luke 10:38-41

Denomination: Baptist

Sing With The Mind Also

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Oct 26, 2009

Cantate Sunday, 1986: Music has power to involve every facet of our beings in worship, it helps build the body of Christ, and it can offer a credible witness to the world.

It was offertory time in the morning worship, and everyone had settled down quietly – settling down, I suspect, for a little nap to get themselves ready for the big nap they would take during the sermon! And, as was customary, the organist began the slow and solemn strains of an offertory: music to ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:6-15

Denomination: Baptist

Where Is The God Of Justice?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Mar 25, 2010

For Martin Luther King Day 1988: It is irresponsible to continue to whine about God's absence in the face of injustice. He is refining His church to address justice, and will bless us when we give ourselves without reserve to His purposes.

Some twenty-four centuries ago, when the prophet Malachi's ears were assaulted by an impertinent question, he heard it as a confession of irresponsibility. When the men and women of Judah shouted at this prophet, who had accused them of wearying God, who had charged that their blabbering talk was ...read more

Denomination: Baptist