North Park Baptist Church of Bridgeport CT

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How to Succeed As a Husband

June 16, 2024

Ephesians 5:25-33

Mark Smith

How to Succeed As a Husband

Date Preached: June 16, 2024

Speaker: Mark Smith

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God has a plan for family success. It begins with understanding the basic responsibilities he's given to wives, husbands, children, and fathers. In this message we'll look at the responsibilities of the husband, taken from Ephesians 5:25-33.

How to Succeed As a Husband

Daniel Stands Firm

June 9, 2024

The Book of Daniel: God Is in Control

Daniel 1

Mark Smith

Daniel Stands Firm

Date Preached: June 9, 2024

Series: The Book of Daniel: God Is in Control

Speaker: Mark Smith

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The pressure to conform must have been incredible. Most other young men like him gave in. Not Daniel, and not his three friends.

Taken to Babylon as a young teenager, Daniel was expected to no longer be a Jew, but to become a Babylonian. His mind would be reprogrammed, his Jewish name replace with a pagan Babylonian name, and his strict Jewish diet discarded for the unclean food of a pagan king.

Daniel drew the line with the food. He would not defile himself with it. That would mean death, unless somehow he was able to get his Babylonian overseers to allow him to substitute vegetables and water for the king's rich food and wine.

We'll see how Daniel's firm stand turned out and whether there is a lesson for any of us as we face pressures to conform today.

Daniel Stands Firm

Daniel’s Times

June 2, 2024

The Book of Daniel: God Is in Control

Daniel 1:1-7

Mark Smith

Daniel’s Times

Date Preached: June 2, 2024

Series: The Book of Daniel: God Is in Control

Speaker: Mark Smith

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Before we study the Book of Daniel we need to understand the times Daniel lived in. Without this background information the major message of the book will not come through as clearly as it did to Daniel's first readers.

In this message we'll look at the time in Israel's history that Daniel lived, the international conflicts that involved Daniel's nation, the questions all pious Jews must have had about what was happening to Israel, and the challenges a Daniel, as a teenager, faced when he had to live in a radically different world than the one he'd grown up in.

Daniel’s Times

The Cross of Christ

May 26, 2024

1 Corinthians 1:17-25

Mark Smith

The Cross of Christ

Date Preached: May 26, 2024

Speaker: Mark Smith

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The central person of the Bible is Jesus Christ. The central events in Jesus' life are his death on the cross, his burial, and his resurrection.

The last week of Jesus' life (which includes these three events) takes up 40% of the Gospel of Matthew, 60% of the Gospel of Mark, 33% of the Gospel of Luke, and 50% of the Gospel of John. It isn't the life of Jesus nor his teachings, but his cross which is the central message of the New Testament. You cannot correctly understand Christianity without understanding the cross. We'll let the Apostle Paul help us understand why the cross is central in this message.

The Cross of Christ

A Happy Ending – Ruth and Naomi Are Redeemed

May 19, 2024

Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Ruth 4

Mark Smith

A Happy Ending – Ruth and Naomi Are Redeemed

Date Preached: May 19, 2024

Series: Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Speaker: Mark Smith

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No one looking in, as we did, on the early story of Naomi and Ruth, would have anticipated a happy ending. We probably would have expected them to struggle to get by until one or both of them died. They had suffered great loss and along with it hope for a better future.

Yet, as we'll see today, not only did their story end with unexpected joy and comfort, but God used their experiences to keep what would become a critical family line alive. We'll see that we have been blessed, as Ruth and Naomi were, but what God di for both of them.

A Happy Ending – Ruth and Naomi Are Redeemed

Ruth Takes a Big Risk

May 12, 2024

Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Ruth 3

Mark Smith

Ruth Takes a Big Risk

Date Preached: May 12, 2024

Series: Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Speaker: Mark Smith

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Do you consider yourself a risk-taker? Many of us don't. This applies to relationships as well as choosing to skydive out of an airplane. We don't like to stick our neck out in a relationship. We don't want to take the chance we might be rejected, made fun of, or avoided.

Yet it is risk - potentially very serious risk - in a relationship that we encounter in this week's passage. Ruth is counseled by her mother-in-law to take a big risk in order to provide long-term security for her. What did Naomi suggest? Will Ruth take the risk? How will it turn out?

If God speaks to us, will we risk a relationship to obey? What is God trying to teach us through a lowly peasant woman named Ruth?

Ruth Takes a Big Risk

Naomi Gets a Faithlift

May 5, 2024

Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Ruth 2:14-23

Mark Smith

Naomi Gets a Faithlift

Date Preached: May 5, 2024

Series: Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Speaker: Mark Smith

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Has God forgotten? Worse yet, has God turned against me?

Naomi thought so. Under the burden of the death of her husband and her two sons, Naomi's faith had sagged.

However, behind the scenes, God was working out a plan to bless her more than she could have imagined.

As we learned in the last message, there was a man who could change Naomi's and Ruth's fortunes. Just by 'chance' Ruth met this man. As we'll see in this message, while Ruth didn't understand the significance of this encounter, Naomi did. She also recognized God's mercy and kindness in what had happened. God gave her a faithlift. Unexpected. Through what was not an unusual circumstance. But God's fingerprints were all over the encounter,

Naomi Gets a Faithlift

Ruth’s ‘Chance’ Decision

April 14, 2024

Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Ruth 2:1-13

Mark Smith

Ruth’s ‘Chance’ Decision

Date Preached: April 14, 2024

Series: Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Speaker: Mark Smith

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So far in the Book of Ruth we haven't had much reason to think that things were going to turn out well for Naomi and Ruth. Famine, infertility, death. This is what we've encountered so far.

The beginning of chapter two raises a bit of hope. We meet a man who through his relationship to Naomi's husband's family might just be the person who could be of most help. Then we find Ruth choosing a field to glean in and we discover the field belongs to this very man. Things are getting interesting.

Then this man, Boaz, meets Ruth and is kind and gracious to her, something she doesn't expect and feels she doesn't deserve. He knows who she is but she doesn't yet know who he is.

We leave the story at this point but not before some valuable lessons from both Ruth and Boaz, and the anticipation that God may still have something more in store for Naomi and Ruth.

Ruth’s ‘Chance’ Decision

A Bitter Naomi Returns to Bethlehem

April 7, 2024

Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Ruth 1:6-22

Mark Smith

A Bitter Naomi Returns to Bethlehem

Date Preached: April 7, 2024

Series: Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Speaker: Mark Smith

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The second act of the drama of the little Book of Ruth opens with Naomi determining to return to Bethlehem. At first, both her widowed daughters-in-law accompany her, but one turns back after Naomi urges her to return to her own mother's house. Her other daughter-in-law, Ruth, refuses to leave and declares that Naomi's people and people will become her people and God. She is leaving Moab for good.

Arriving in Bethlehem, Naomi declares her bitterness against God for all he allowed to happen to her. Yet, there may be some hope on the horizon as our author hints at things to come in the closing verse of this Act, in 1:22.

Though this passage is brief, Naomi and Ruth have things to teach us.

A Bitter Naomi Returns to Bethlehem

How to be Certain of Heaven

March 31, 2024

Miscellaneous Sermons

1 John 5:13

Mark Smith

How to be Certain of Heaven

Date Preached: March 31, 2024

Series: Miscellaneous Sermons

Speaker: Mark Smith

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Jesus died and rose for one purpose: so that we could be certain of having eternal life with him in heaven. The Apostle John wrote a letter dedicated to helping us know how we could be certain of eternal life. It is his first letter, or 1 John. In this message we'll start with 1 John 5:13, which tells us we can be certain of heaven, then go back to discover the three steps we must take so that we are certain of heaven.

How to be Certain of Heaven

Tragedy Comes to Naomi’s Family

March 24, 2024

Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Ruth 1:1-5

Mark Smith

Tragedy Comes to Naomi’s Family

Date Preached: March 24, 2024

Series: Handfuls on Purpose - God's Gracious Provision for Ruth (and for us)

Speaker: Mark Smith

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A famine. A desperate attempt to survive. Childlessness. Death. Three widows left grieving. Tragedy upon tragedy. Where is God in all of this?

Set during the period of the Judges, the story of Ruth, a woman from Moab, and her mother-in-law, an Israelite named Naomi, remind us that even when things are the darkest God is working out his special plan.

The little book of Ruth is an expertly told short story of family tragedy and God's gracious provision when all seems hopelessly lost. In this message we'll cover Act 1 of this drama, tracing the travels and travails of an Israelite family from Bethlehem to Moab. It's just fives verses, but short as it is, it has much to teach us today. Join us at the start of our journey with Ruth and Naomi.

Tragedy Comes to Naomi’s Family

Moral Collapse in Israel

March 17, 2024

Desperate Times for God's People

Judges 19-21

Mark Smith

Moral Collapse in Israel

Date Preached: March 17, 2024

Series: Desperate Times for God's People

Speaker: Mark Smith

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As a second illustration of the consequences of living by the moral code of doing what is right in one's own eyes (Judges 17:6, 21:25), Judges 19-21 tells a second story from the period of the Judges, likely very early in that period.

We'll discover that one of the tribes of Israel has lost all sense of what is right and wrong. As a result, they not only refuse to deal with egregious sin in their midst, they defend that behavior even at the risk of their own lives.

Thankfully all of Israel has not lost its sense of what is right and wrong, and they address the problem. However, it costs them dearly to bring about justice and punish the wrong doers.

This is an ugly story and much of it not meant to be read publicly, but it is a story we need to hear because it is a warning to us today about tolerating sin and defending those who choose to live by the code of "doing what is right in their own eyes."

Moral Collapse in Israel

Micah, Jonathan, and Dan Rock to Their Own Beat

March 10, 2024

Desperate Times for God's People

Judges 17-18

Mark Smith

Micah, Jonathan, and Dan Rock to Their Own Beat

Date Preached: March 10, 2024

Series: Desperate Times for God's People

Speaker: Mark Smith

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When we come to chapter 17 of the Book of Judges we encounter the first of two undated incidents that occurred during the period of the Judges. Each serves as an example of the spiritual and moral decline of Israel that occurred during this period.

The first, our passage for this week, is in Judges 17 and 18. It relates the story of a man in Ephraim, a Levite from Bethlehem, and the tribe of Dan. We'll find that each of these is rocking to the beat of a song whose theme is "Every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6). This was the moral code of many during the period of the judges, and these two chapters illustrate the spiritual and moral results of embracing that code of conduct.

In this message we'll reveal the lyrics to the song they were rocking to, and the results that letting that song play continuously in their heads led to. The song is strangly familiar, so worth discovering for our own instruction.

Micah, Jonathan, and Dan Rock to Their Own Beat

Hitting with the Majors

March 3, 2024

Desperate Times for God's People

Judges 3:31, 10:1-4, 12:8-15

Mark Smith

Hitting with the Majors

Date Preached: March 3, 2024

Series: Desperate Times for God's People

Speaker: Mark Smith

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The book of Judges focuses most of it attention on six men and one woman who acted as delivers for Israel. There are, however, six other men who served in this role who didn't get as much coverage. They are easy to overlook or ignore.

But God does not have majors and minors, even though that's sometimes how these two sets of judges are categorized. Anyone who serves God is on God's team, period. All count. These six men who got less 'ink' remind us that God knows everyone who serves him, regardless of how spectacular or ordinary their contributions are. Let's take a look at the six men God didn't overlook and learn from them how God may look at some of us.

Hitting with the Majors

The Tragedy of Samson

February 25, 2024

Desperate Times for God's People

Judges 16

Mark Smith

The Tragedy of Samson

Date Preached: February 25, 2024

Series: Desperate Times for God's People

Speaker: Mark Smith

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You have probably know someone who had great potential but never lived up to it. Such was Samson. Supernaturally caused conception, a mission from God before his birth, great powers, but tragically compromised by his own weaknesses.

We'd hope that as he matured, Samson might turn into the person God intended him to be. But that did not happen. His weaknesses only led to his own tragic end, as we'll see in this message,

We can be gifted, talented, and be give many advantages, but unless God helps us overcome our own weaknesses, we could end up a tragedy like Samson.

The Tragedy of Samson

Failing to Learn from Mistakes

February 18, 2024

Desperate Times for God's People

Judges 15

Mark Smith

Failing to Learn from Mistakes

Date Preached: February 18, 2024

Series: Desperate Times for God's People

Speaker: Mark Smith

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Have you ever made a mistake, then turned around and done it again? Samson repeated many mistakes, but his enemies, the Philistines, matched him at least one-for-one. Unfortunately for them, they totally misunderstood who they were dealing with. The result was that every mistake they made cost them more and more.

What the Philistines failed to recognize was that they were not just dealing with a strong man named Samson. They were dealing with Samson's God. It was God who was empowering Samson. No effort on the Philistine's part was going to stop him. They didn't figure that out even in the face of superhuman feats, so it cost them dearly,

This message warns us about not learning from our own mistakes. We don't want to be modern day Philistines.

Failing to Learn from Mistakes

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