Pastor Doyle Smith — Sermons

Scripture: Psalm 22, Matthew 27:45 Earl was gone, and Helen was gone, and Gary was gone. So we had all the people there, with the exception of Mark Bitter and myself, were from Hoisington. We had two whole families there. Probably between those were more than 10 people. And so we had a good group of people all from Hoisington this morning. So good to see that. Nine children came. I think there were several of them that were there, though, for church, the kids, children, too. We had a good group and some guests with them that we h...

Scripture: Matthew 23:37-39, Matthew 23:33 We will be taking the 23rd, our Lottie Moon Mission Offering, but of course if you are going to be gone that day or you just get anxious about it, you can turn it in any time. Make sure you indicate that it's for the Lottie Moon Offering, which is a primary support for our foreign missionaries all over the world. I want to read a passage this morning from Matthew chapter 23, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. I think it'd help you to follow along and if you have something that you...

Scripture: Matthew 24:15 Thank you, Carl. I want to thank you also. I don't know who did the scrape the snow everywhere. Does anybody here know who did that? Anybody own up to scraping all the snow off the sidewalks for us? Ozzie did? Okay. Ozzie and Alicia. Alicia will take credit for anything. Well, we know who to call on next time. We appreciate that. Some of you came in the building and you may have seen people around you and recognized them for the first time. All the lights that are new out there over the holiday ...

Scripture: Matthew 25:31, John 1 I looked up on the internet to see what kind of thoughts people in our world have about heaven and hell. That's a gist of the text that I want to use today. I saw surveys, a lot of different ones, but maybe the one that seemed the most extensive said that people in the United States who are surveyed about heaven and hell, 75% of the people who were surveyed were sure they were going to go to heaven, 75%. 5% of the people surveyed didn't think they would go to heaven. 9% of the people in the surv...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-13 Chapter 10, verses 12 and 13 are the introduction to a sermon that Moses gives in the rest of this chapter 10 and all of chapter 11. And like a lot of times whenever someone gives a speech or a sermon or writes a book, they start out with a brief summary of what they're going to cover. And that's true in this one. Verses 12 and 13 are a summary of what God, of what Moses wants to declare to the people of Israel as they're getting ready to enter the land of promise. Verse 12 starts, And now, O Is...

Scripture: Matthew 25 I'm reading this morning a passage from Matthew chapter 25, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. Jesus had been talking to the twelve that he called, preparing them for the day that he was going to leave. He knew that he would be with them for a while, and then whenever his work on this earth was finished, he'd be taken away, and everything that he'd started would be completed by these twelve people that he had called to learn from him. He taught them about the importance of a commitment t...

Scripture: Romans 7:21, Romans 8:1, Romans 5:18, Romans 7:7 I don't know if you have, if you've ever, ever occurred to you about these, like the letters that Paul wrote, that they were written not to be read, but to be heard. Because people didn't have the literacy we have, you know, so whenever you wrote a letter to a church, they would read it out loud in the congregation, and there's a difference between hearing something, you don't have to look over and go back and try to figure out what it means, and it's the difference between hearing something and...

Scripture: Romans 6:1, Romans 6:3-4, Romans 6:5-6, Romans 6:8 ...to Romans chapter 6. I almost stole a Bible to come up here and do this. I'm not sure if a missionary Bible would work. What language it's actually in, I don't know. Paul's scheme in the book of Romans is to identify the primary issue that we have in our world, and it is the issue of sin. He says everybody in this world has tasted of it, relished it, bathed in it, gloried in it, and practiced it regularly. But it's a big problem to all of us. And he begins to...

Scripture: Romans 5, Romans 6, Romans 3:7-8 Laine's girlfriend's mother, yeah, she's checking him out. I don't know what that had to do with it. In the first five chapters of the book of Romans, Paul is dealing with sin and death and the law and faith. And in those four issues, he's been discussing the reality that all of sin, and he talks about people outside the Jewish faith have sinned because they've rejected what knowledge they had of God. And the Jews had taken the law and had made the law a substitute for God and had violated placi...

Scripture: Romans 6:19 become free from the grip of sin on our lives. He uses two illustrations here that go together. I talked about one of them last week, but I'd like to go back and talk about that one and connect it with what takes place in the beginning of chapter 7. You know by now, I suppose, that the chapter designations in the Scripture were not made by the writers of these books. They were just people who sometimes later sat down and tried to figure out where these divisions came, and we don't have any indic...

Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14 did that he was right and they were wrong they were sure he was wrong but they knew that there was something guiding his life that was different than theirs and so they ask him what authority do you have to do this and who gave you this authority they hope to trick him into saying well that's what I thought I should do he didn't answer them because he knew they would listen what he had to say but he taught them something he wanted to teach them that they were living their lives outside of...

Scripture: Romans 4, Romans 5:1 so that we can have an idea of what is taking place. Paul started out in this letter trying to address the issue of sin in human race. He begins by talking about the fact that people in the world, no matter where they are, have some evidence of God's presence. They may not know His name, they may not know the things in the Bible, but they do know that there is someone who created the world bigger and greater than they are. And routinely, all people have said, no, I don't want to worship that...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 15:1 It's got quite a collection of people all over the room, different places. Chapter 15 of Deuteronomy has a long introduction to it. When Moses was talking about the people coming into the land of promise, the land of Canaan, he had a long, long, almost the first 14 chapters of talking about God's presence and His guidance, about who He is and what He demanded of them, that He would take them to a place where He would tell them they should worship, where He would tell them exactly how they should...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 17:14, 1 Samuel 8 Chapter 17, beginning with verse 14. Moses is discussing with the people of Israel about what their life is to be like after they've come into the land of promise. He's giving them the order of their structure. He begins by talking about the judges. He talks about the law courts. And he talks about the importance of placing loyalty to their God, Yahweh their God, as a key ingredient in all of this. And now he comes to a chapter, in this chapter, to instructions about how the political ruler, or ...

Scripture: Matthew 21:33, Matthew 22, Matthew 23 I'm going to use two passages of scripture, one in chapter 22 of Matthew and one in chapter 23 of the book of Matthew, if you'd like to find those in your Bibles. Ever since I put this on, I've had a compelling desire to cough, and I hope that's over with. The passage in Matthew chapter 22, I think, is really the story of Jesus' life in a parable form. I think Jesus, when he gave this, knew that that's what it was. It had to be difficult for him because it wasn't a very wonderful or desirable...

Scripture: Matthew 24:3-8 Of course, Christmas is about the birth of a baby, Jesus, but the story of Christmas is about what this baby became, the kind of person he was and what he did. We wouldn't be celebrating this day if Jesus had died shortly after his birth. We wouldn't be celebrating this day if Jesus just became another man like all the rest of us, but there was something different about Jesus. He did things that changed the course of human history, and so we celebrate this day because of the man Jesus became and...

Scripture: Romans 5 The conclusion is, we were delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. He means Christ died to give us freedom from sin. He's raised to life to be able to bring us through the process of sanctification or justification. Those two words are complementary to each other. Now, that's the basis on which he starts chapter 5. Therefore, since this is true, since we have been justified through faith, he brings it back to that point. And now he does something in the beg...

Scripture: Matthew 26:37, Matthew 26:47 Scripture from Matthew chapter 26, if you find that in your Bibles. Jesus was not only a great teacher, he was a person who lived what he taught. It's really helpful whenever you hear instructions, if you have them written out, or if someone will actually do that, so you can look at it and see exactly what it means to do it. Sometimes the written instructions are a little hard to follow. Sometimes they seem impossible to follow, really. But Jesus made a point of making sure that the things that ...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 12:1, Deuteronomy 11:1, Deuteronomy 11:8, Deuteronomy 11:13, Deuteronomy 11:18-20, Deuteronomy 11:27, Deuteronomy 11:28, Deuteronomy 11:32 Bibles to Deuteronomy, chapter 12. Chapter 12, verse 1. I'm going to go back a little bit to 11 to set the context for this. Stories are always written, I mean the story is written in a, they have a connection. So to pick one piece out and start with it always sort of leaves you uncertain about what's taking place. And what I want to focus on is the idea that here he is beginning to tell them sort of the result of all the things he's been talking about with regard to...

Scripture: Matthew 25:14 Matthew collected from all the stories in Jesus' life different accounts of Him talking about when He was going to return and the end of the world would come. So we sort of have in one place all these stories. All these stories were given to us so that we would be prepared or ready. That's what Jesus kept emphasizing. He said you're to watch because the time when He comes you won't be able to prepare for it. He said you're to prepare yourselves. And then He tells a story about what preparation m...

Scripture: Romans chapter 8, Romans 8:9, Romans 5:21, book of Galatians Let's get the CD started, so Debbie will have something to put on the website. And we'll all work together. Romans chapter 8, if you'd turn your Bibles there. Paul has talked about how difficult it is because our human nature, we want to do the things that are right, but we don't have the ability to be able to do it. And no matter how much we try, our human nature overrides these things. But he said, the real answer to all of this is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And...

Scripture: Matthew 26:1-5 I'm going to read a passage of scripture this morning from chapter 26 of the book of Matthew. If you'd like to find that, I'm going to read the first five verses of that book this morning. Amen. Already? Boy, you're getting started just telling the numbers gets you excited, doesn't it? You might want to say that later in the service and wake people up, that might help out. Matthew chapter 26, beginning first one through five. In this passage, Jesus is going through a transition. Jesus in his lif...

Scripture: Matthew 23:38 We celebrate Christmas as a birthday of Jesus, but it wasn't the child Jesus that was so significant as what he became and what he did that's so life-changing and world-changing for us and for all around us. I've taken a passage from Matthew chapter 23 to talk about what Jesus means to the world and what he's done, and we have the Advent candles that we use as a way of reminding us of these significant facts about Jesus' life and who he was and what he means to us. Jesus came to the Pharisees an...

Scripture: Matthew 25:31 Jesus was faced with a great difficulty as he set about to do the job the Father had sent him here to do. His handicap was he was human, like you're human. You find it difficult sometimes to think of doing the work of God because you're human. Jesus faced the very same situation. He started out doing the work the Father had called him to do, but for 30 years he was an ordinary human being with a job in the construction industry, working for a living, taking care of his mother and family as a hum...

Scripture: Matthew 24:42 The scriptures are written in ways by which they're to be read out loud, because most people, when the Bible was originally written, didn't read, so they read them out loud. And the book of Matthew is a continuous story, and when you pick a piece of it up, it has a setting in which it's important to see. In this section, Matthew has collected together a series of sayings that Jesus said about the end time, about the return he's going to have in this world. And you know, Jesus preached in one pla...

Scripture: Matthew 23, 1 Corinthians 12:12-21 I want to use a passage of scripture this morning from Matthew chapter 23, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. This passage follows a series of events in which Jesus has been attacked. The scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees have all had their chance at him. They've said rather vicious things about him, and they've tried their very best to put him in a position where he would look as if he was a failure, or as if he didn't know what he was doing, or if he was a fraud. All...

Scripture: Matthew 23:37-39, Matthew 23:33 We will be taking the 23rd, our Lottie Moon Mission Offering, but of course if you are going to be gone that day or you just get anxious about it, you can turn it in any time. Make sure you indicate that it's for the Lottie Moon Offering, which is a primary support for our foreign missionaries all over the world. I want to read a passage this morning from Matthew chapter 23, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. I think it'd help you to follow along and if you have something that you...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 11:8, Leviticus 19:11 Moses is just finished in chapter 10, sort of laying the foundation for what will be the guidelines for the people of Israel when they settle in the land of promise that God was guiding them to. He describes the commitment that they are to make to love God, to fear Him, to walk in His ways, to serve Him with all their heart, soul, and to observe His commands. Now he starts talking about in chapter 11 the two key ingredients in this instruction, loving God and keeping His requirements. The loving...

Scripture: Matthew 22, Leviticus I want to read a passage this morning from Matthew chapter 22, if you'd like to find that and hold it for a few moments. I'll be using it a little while. In this story, Jesus was confronted by people who were questioning. This is the third of a series of these questions. Each of these questions, they thought, would generate conflict for Jesus. They thought when he answered these questions that some people would lose confidence in him. They thought that his ministry would be over. He might be kil...

Scripture: Matthew 26:50, Matthew 26:69 I have two passages I want to read this morning. Matthew chapter 26, I want to begin reading with verse 50 of chapter 26. Amen. Boy, you're right on that today, getting started good. And then I want to read another passage from chapter 26, beginning with verse 69, because there's a connection between these that I think are really important, a connection that lets us see something about not only the lives of these people involved, but about something about ourselves and what the nature of our own...

Scripture: Matthew 26:69, Matthew 27:1-10, John 6:64-71, John 12 I want to read this morning a passage from Matthew, if you'd find that in your Bibles. Matthew chapter 26, and I want to read through chapter 27 verse 10. Chapter 26, starting with verse 69, reading through chapter 27 verse 10. Whenever I am trying to make a decision about buying something or doing something, I like to sit down and think of all the positive reasons why I should do it, all the negative reasons why I should do it, and sort of weigh those with each other. I like, if I'm buying some...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 11:13, John chapter 1 Open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 11. Which one do you want to turn to? You just turn to whichever page you want. One time I had a course, a night course in seminary and they asked me to teach it. It was lay people. It came to a course on church history. And all the class got there. There was about 20 people in it. And as a graduate student, doctoral student, I had a chance at night to teach this class. So there was a lady sitting on the front row. And they all got their...

Scripture: Psalms 68:4 I don't know if you have found, as you read the Old Testament, it puzzling how a hard it seemed to be for God to get to the Israelite people away from idolatry. Has that ever puzzled you why they kept falling back into idolatry? I think it would help us maybe in this passage where he's talking about them entering the promised land and how severe his instructions are with regard to worship. I think it would help us maybe to see the setting in which this passage is written, because it's so differe...

Scripture: Matthew 24:32-35 Jesus often times said things to people that were shocking, that they didn't expect, and what he said to his disciples on this occasion was very shattering. I want to read from chapter 24 of the book of Matthew, and I want to talk about verses 32 through 35, this is sort of a conclusion to this chapter, and Jesus was telling them the shocking thing that the temple that they had, this magnificent building, maybe the most unusual architectural structure in the world in Jesus' day, was going to be ...

Scripture: Matthew 23:13-22 I want to use several verses in this passage. I want to concentrate on verse 16 through 22, but I want to use verses 13 through 22. The passage in chapter 23 is a sharp condemnation that Jesus uses of church leaders, preachers, Sunday school teachers, we would say, deacons, people who come to church every week, a powerful act of condemnation, but it's not something that's new because from the very beginning of the Old Testament, periodically God brought great judgment on his own people. He broug...

Scripture: Romans chapter 7 The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. Next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card. The next time you go to use your credit card, remember to bring your credit card with you. The next time you go to use your credit card...

Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12, Deuteronomy 10:14, Deuteronomy 10:17, Deuteronomy 10:20, Deuteronomy 11:1 Deuteronomy chapter 10. This is a time for a commercial. This niacin is good for whatever ails you. Niacin. Be careful, but don't take too much. Shayla Irvin says niacin is what made her kidneys start working and they gave her too much of it. Anybody want your kidneys to stop working? We got the right to hear the thing for you. No, I'm not taking it. I don't want my kidneys to stop working. They tell me that Betty left this here. It's unopened. If anybody takes this already and doesn't have enou...

Scripture: Matthew 24:23 Well, that Mayan calendar was just wrong. You realize the world didn't end? Everybody's kind of interested in it. Whenever that story came out, you saw it on the news and heard people talk about it. People always reminding us that the next day or two or three days, the world was going to end because the calendar ended. The disciples themselves were also interested in what was going to happen at the end of the world. Jesus had told them the temple would be destroyed, and this was to them the sort...

Scripture: Matthew 23:13-22 I want to use several verses in this passage. I want to concentrate on verse 16 through 22, but I want to use verses 13 through 22. The passage in chapter 23 is a sharp condemnation that Jesus uses of church leaders, preachers, Sunday school teachers, we would say, deacons, people who come to church every week, a powerful act of condemnation, but it's not something that's new because from the very beginning of the Old Testament, periodically God brought great judgment on his own people. He broug...

Scripture: Matthew 23:13-14 I want to read a passage of scripture from Matthew chapter 23, if you'd find that in your Bibles. I want to read verses 13 and 14 from that passage. This is a time in Jesus' ministry when there was a lot of tension in His life. The religious leaders had been following Jesus around, and they had been asking Him questions to try to trick Him. They wanted to expose Him to His own followers as a phony, a fake, so His followers would abandon Him, but it didn't work. They wanted to ask Him questions t...