Sermons on Joseph Smith:

Fire Of Glory, Fire Of Drought

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 8, 2003

We have experienced the warm glow of God’s blessings, but the fire of judgment is also at hand, for worship becomes ritual, there is a critical spirit, and pessimism spreads. Diligence and integrity bring vitality in worship.

In all the annals of human history, there is one item which has held out more hope and yet offered more terror than any other. Wherever human beings gathered, in the infancy of our race, there this one item, this one element, both attracted them and repelled them; it drew them close and yet it ...read more

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:1-22

Denomination: Baptist

Too Wide To Hide

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 8, 2003

Preached in a church of another denomination for Christian Unity Sunday and Martin Luther King Sunday: we tend to hide our own history and to conceal our witness. But God calls us into a wider ministry.

I’m not sure how it is among Methodists, but we Baptist folks have a strange custom of hiding when we come to church. We hide. We try to get in and get out without being noticed. I don’t know whether Methodists are infected with this disease, but with Baptists it is an epidemic. We hide. ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 40:1-11, Micah 6:6-8

Denomination: Baptist

God's Perfect Plan: Strength, Action, Courage

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 9, 2003

When God gives us a task, His perfect plan includes the resources to do it: strength, action, and courage. Sermon for deacon ordination service.

We have been burning fuel very rapidly. Coal, oil, natural gas .. we are consuming it. It is irreplaceable. Some scientists say that unless we change our ways, we are going to burden our children and our grandchildren with a very serious energy problem. The next generation will inherit a burden ...read more

Scripture: 1 Chronicles 28:20-21

Denomination: Baptist

Heavenly Minded, Earthly Good Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 9, 2003

Introductory sermon to a series on the Purpose-Driven Life: the world says life’s purpose is having things or impressing people. But we are empowered when we use our lives for the purposes for which they are intended.

The choir began to sing, “This earth is not my home”, and I began to be uncomfortable. The more they chanted, the more I squirmed. “This earth is not my home, I am a stranger here, but I am bound for heaven, whence I shall never roam.” Well, yes and no. It is true that this earth is not our ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Revival, Reform, Renewal

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 12, 2003

For Reformation Sunday, and a followup to a week of revival services: revival is good, reformation is better, but renewal is what God is really aiming at.

My great-uncle, Ed Weber, drove an ancient car. I doubt if you’ve ever heard of its brand name. He drove a Terraplane. Anybody remember the Terraplane? Well, dearie, if you do, then you are much older than I, because my great-uncle’s Terraplane was already ancient when I was a boy. It had been ...read more

Scripture: 2 Kings 23:25, Zephaniah 3:14-17

Denomination: Baptist

A Fresh Start

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 13, 2003

Preached at a rescue mission; everyone needs a fresh start when we mess up on life-building. It’s not enough to feel guilty, not enough to blame others, not even enough to get new skills. We need the help of the Master Carpenter.

I don’t know anybody who doesn’t need, from time to time, a fresh start. No matter who you are, no matter where you have been, no matter what you are trying to do, you just need, sometimes a fresh start, a new beginning. Trying to fix things the way they are won’t work; you need sometimes to ...read more

Scripture: John 3:1-16

Denomination: Baptist

The Land Of Beginning Again

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 15, 2003

For New Year’s: a participatory sermon, raising the questions: [1] What comfort zone is God calling you to leave? [2] What frightens you most about what God is calling you toward? [3] In what ways have you resisted God’s desire to bless you? [4] How is G

Every now and then God does something which guarantees that those among whom He is working will never be the same again. Whatever it is that He does may seem small and insignificant at the time, but after a while you come to realize that He has done something which has changed everything. We’ve ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 12:1-3, Psalm 137:1

Denomination: Baptist

You Were Formed To Be Part Of God's Family Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Aug 23, 2003

Diversity divides the human family, but understanding unites us. However, finally the fragmented family can be fixed only by faith. Part of a series to support the study of Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life.

A few years ago I began to pay attention to the tradition of family reunions in African-American families. I think it may have been when I learned that the Faulkners were driving to Massachusetts to meet other Faulkners. Or maybe it was when I found out that the Hairstons rent an entire hotel and ...read more

Scripture: Acts 17:16-34

Denomination: Baptist

Knee Deep In Sheep

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Dec 10, 2005

For Advent III, preached at First Baptist of Gaithersburg, MD. "We may be knee deep in sheep, but let this keep you as you sleep, it is joy we reap". God in Christ transforms the ordinariness of everyday, humdrum life.

We may be knee deep in sheep, but let this keep you as you sleep – it is joy we shall reap. Did you get all that? Too many rhyming words? Ah, but every one of them is important. Listen again: we may be knee deep in sheep, but let this keep you as you sleep – it is joy we shall reap. Now you ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:8-20

Denomination: Baptist

Let's Nail This Down

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jun 20, 2004

Ordination sermon for Victor Oke. Do not nail down peer group approval; nail down the promises of God to strengthen, help, and uphold you in ministry.

“Who has roused a victor from the east, summoned him to his service?” Brother Oke, I warned you a month ago, at the ordination service for Gloria Grant, that I would probably use your name as the basis for your ordination message. The name “Victor” is so full of spiritual possibility! And so, ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 41:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

All Your Anxiety?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jun 26, 2004

Final sermon as pastor, before retirement. Trust God for the future; He cares for you. Cast on Him anxiety about what threatens us; what only appears to threaten us; and about our ultimate destinies.

I was taught never to put all my eggs in one basket. I was told, as a young person, that I needed to be careful not to commit myself to one and only one thing. I was to stay open to a variety of choices. When I started earning money, my parents taught me not to spend it all on any one ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1-11

Denomination: Baptist

Does This One Count?

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 4, 2004

We ought to have to pay the penalty of sin because we refuse to obey. But God in Christ has done what we could never do for ourselves and has given us a fresh start.

Teenage boys were always looking for something to do on a warm summer’s day, and so the clanking sounds and the laughter got to me that day. I walked across the street to where my best friend lived, and found him in the back yard, with his father, engaged in something new: they were throwing ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Denomination: Baptist

Millennial Mystery And Ministry

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 4, 2004

Installation of Assistant Pastor. How may a young woman make an impact? By acknowledging that it was God who brought her to this time and place, and by laying down her very life for the task.

A young woman in a very difficult situation. A crisis moment, for which no training could have fully prepared her. A dangerous moment, one in which the future of a whole people lay in the balance. She had little power, in the usual sense. She wielded no authority, commanded no troops, had access ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 4:13-16

Denomination: Baptist

A Partnership Of Parental Prayer

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 4, 2004

When we are desperate about what to do with our families, we need to identify our central concerns, see that guilt shakes our weak faith, and use prayer to partner with the healing Christ.

When there is a problem to be solved, we will do everything to solve it except the most obvious and most effective solution. Have you noticed? When something needs to be fixed, we will try all sorts of elaborate, complicated, expensive approaches. But the simplest, most direct, and most effective ...read more

Scripture: Mark 9:14-29

Denomination: Baptist

Tired Of Too Much Church Series

Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 4, 2004

It is easy to be tired of church if church does not connect with integrity, compassion, or fundamental life change. But you will not grow weary if you will work for the good of all.

Several years ago I officiated at a wedding at National Cathedral. At the rehearsal an official of the Cathedral explained why the service would be held in just the Great Choir of the Cathedral, and not out on the main floor, and why we would have to be exactly on-time, no exceptions. He said that ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 1:12-18

Denomination: Baptist