All for the Kingdom with Ben Smith

The sad reality of the present-day church culture is the lost understanding of the church's witness to God's truth and the hope of the gospel. Every faithful church and every church member should be living witness in their community to the truth of God and the hope of the gospel. This is the heart behind Paul's instructions in 1 Timothy 3:14-16. This passage teaches who has authority over the chur...

It is no secret that the office of deacon in many Baptist churches is not rightly ordered. Because this office, in living memory, has functioned according to practical conventions rather than biblical directives, many people have antidotal stories that illustrate the dysfunction that this has produced. Though these stories are part of our experience, they are not helpful to us today, and I have ch...

The sanctity of life for Christians is not a political issue. The sanctity of life for Christians is a convictional issue that before the Lord, every human life is made by God and holy before God. Psalm 139 is a psalm of David and a powerful word on the omnipresence of God. Verses 13-16 come in response to David marveling that God knows everything about him. Building on this, David declares that e...

This is a Psalm of David, but it is unknown what situation he is writing about. From the first two verses, we learn that he is being threatened by evil persons and has received the counsel to flee for safety. However, in the situation that was the occasion of this psalm, David was led by the Lord not to flee from whatever was threatening his life. He trusted his life and well-being to the provisio...

This world is corrupted and filled with wickedness. Psalm 10 addresses the wickedness of this world and the destruction that such evil brings, particularly to the weak and vulnerable. However, you must be careful not to assume that the wickedness exposed in Psalm 10 applies to someone else. This psalm does not confront the classical atheism of those who openly reject the existence of God but funct...

I hope you and your family had a blessed Christmas celebration and a happy new year. Podcast episodes post a week and a half after the date I preach the sermon. Usually, for podcast listeners, this makes little difference. However, during special occasions like Christmas, it is more obvious that the podcast episodes are behind. I had the opportunity to hear a fellow pastor in our community preach,...

The gospel of Matthew (2:20-23) tells us that God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to tell him that the child that Mary was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel also instructed Joseph that the son Mary would bear would be named Jesus because "he will save his people from their sins." The name Jesus is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means the Lord saves....

The last two names listed in Isaiah 9:6 for the Messiah are Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. These two names point to the eternal nature of the Messiah and the work of redemption he has accomplished. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is fundamental to the work of redemption and celebrates the victory over sin and death that Jesus' resurrection has brought. The...

Isaiah declares that Jesus will be called – wonderful counselor and mighty God. Wonderful counselor acknowledges that the Messiah will be one who reveals the glorious truth of God, and Mighty God declares that he is God and exercises the power of God. The Messiah will be God, revealing the truth of himself to the world. In the New Testament, one of the clearest declarations of this comes in John c...

Isaiah 9:6 is a familiar passage often read during Advent. This Advent season, I will be preaching each sermon from Isaiah 9:6 with attention to the names given to the Messiah. Today, we consider the first two phrases of the passage: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.” In these two phrases, we have a foundational truth of the hope of the gospel declaring the nature of Jesus. Jesus i...

In contrast to the celebrated scribes, Jesus draws his disciple's attention to the place where people brought their temple offerings. Their attention was naturally drawn to those making large gifts, but Jesus wanted them to witness something greater. Jesus pointed to the poor widow's offering as a greater offering in the sight of God, not because of worldly value but because of the heart of worshi...

The testimony of Achan's sin testifies to the danger of greed and the importance of being thankful for God's provisions. Gratitude and thanksgiving are the responses to God's provision and grace. Greed is the sin of being ungrateful and taking what has not been provided. This passage teaches us to be thankful for God's provision and honor him with what He provides. Sermon Schedule Note: For the ne...

Few subjects are more fraught with difficulty than the issue this text addresses. In our cultural context, it feels awkward at best and dangerous at worst to declare what women should and should not wear, how women should fix their hair, remain quiet in church, and be submissive. The awkwardness of the cultural context does not release the church from preaching such passages and certainly not Chri...

When lives are in danger, the first impulse is to think about how they can be rescued. The most horrifying situations are when there is no hope of saving those in danger. The gospel's good news is that God desires to rescue you and has provided a way for your salvation in Jesus. Chapter two begins Paul's instructions to Timothy on the proper order of the church. Before addressing these issues, he...

Chapter two begins Paul’s instructions to Timothy on the proper order of the church. However, before addressing these issues, he first lays the foundational truths of the church’s call to prayer and the forgiveness of sin that is only in Jesus. You learned in elementary English class to look for the what, who, how, and why. Likewise, this sermon will focus on the what, who, how, and why of prayer.

When you travel by ship, there is a moment when you realize that your safety is totally dependent on the integrity of the ship. When the ship leaves the dock, it does so slowly enough that the safety of the land seems to linger and remain within reach. However, as the ship sails further to sea, your sight of land grows smaller and more distant. At the distance of 2.9 miles, any sight of land final...

For all the advancements in modern media, the most effective marketing approach has remained unchanged since the creation of time. The most effective and powerful persuasive tactic is personal testimony. It is helpful to hear about all the features of a product and how it could improve your life. However, what will draw your attention and acceptance toward purchasing something is when someone you...

Every profession has those who are incompetent, malevolent, or abusive. When you experience unlawful use of authority, a common reaction is to reject the whole. As a result, the reflective response of many today is to tear down institutions rather than work to repair them. A biblical worldview recognizes the sin of the individual while maintaining the goodness of the institution or position. Paul...

No church is perfectly rightly ordered. However, every church must have a heart to be as rightly ordered and faithful to scripture as possible. The church must regularly examine how it is organized and functions and determine if it is most faithful to scripture. Paul's letters to Timothy deal with many of these issues, which is why it is helpful for Christians and churches to return often to these...

As children leave the house, parents often give short final instructions. These departing words are not new information but reminders of important things. A mom might remind her children of something they need to do while away. A father might remind his children of his expectations of how they should behave while away. And often, parents tell their children one more time that they love them. These...

In these closing words of his letter, Paul gives his final words to the church, hoping that the next time they will hear from him will be in person. In the first four verses, Paul encouraged the wayward brothers and sisters to repent of their sin and promised to deal sternly with those who would not. Secondly, in verses 5-10, he pleads with the brothers and sisters to give serious attention to the...

As Paul concludes his letter, he gives some final warnings and instructions. His final warning can be broken into two parts, confrontation of sin and examining your faith to test if it is genuine. In this sermon, I preach on the first part concerning the confrontation of sin. Confronting sin and church discipline is something that most Christians know should be happening, but they have not seen a...

The relationship of parent to child is one that Paul uses in this passage and is helpful in understanding the relationship between those who proclaim the gospel and those who receive it. Children do not always appreciate their parents' sacrifices and sometimes even rebel against their parents. What motivates all that parents do for their children is love. In this passage, the Bible teaches how bel...