Paul Washer - The Narrow Gate

Paul Washer has been involved in the HeartCry Missionary Society since its initial stages in Peru. He currently serves as the director. Paul preached this message to 5,000 youth last year. It has been one of the most talked about sermons on SermonAudio.com and among many circles. There were a ton of comments left on this site about this sermon... Passionate, challenging, john-the-baptish like...

Check it out: Here is the link!

Matt Chandler - Gravity - The weight of pastoring and the knowledge of Christ

Matt Chandler is, according to theresurgence.com, "one of the youngest and most gifted teachers in the U.S. today." He is the pastor of The Village Church in Texas and he was invited to speak at a pastors conference at Mars Hill in Seattle. Though this message was from this conference, I believe anyone with a ministers heart would be encouraged. A challenging, insightful message from a dynamic and biblical speaker. Check out this link.

Rob Bell - Leaving Control for Faith

Rob Bell is famous. But, I knew him, uh, heard him before he was famous. Well, famouser, I guess. He was speaking at Youth Specialities conference and his words made a huge impact on me that evening. I have always respected Rob Bell and appreciated him for how he ministered to me. A few years have gone by and now Rob Bell is famous. He has those cool little Nooma videos, he just did a tour around america and he writes books, too. I may not agree with everything he says or some philosophies of how he leads church, but I really appreciate his honesty, his ability to link the word of God to the heart and how he has taught me the importance of really understanding the context of scripture and history. This talk that titled, Leaving Control for Faith is insightful, practical and convicting. He shows us how not only do we have very little control in our lives, but identifies how this desire to control things leads to sin and lots of pain. If you feel like you have problems with trying to control people, situations or life, this is a great sermon (to avoid:) to listen to...

Here is the link to download the sermon...

Wayne Grudem - Being Filled with the Holy Spirit

I remember having a conversation with a friend one time when he had just gotten an Ipod. I was telling him about the different sites to download some great sermons. He looked at me funny and said, "No offense but I am not going to listen to sermons on my Ipod." I was kind of blown away at his bluntness and honesty, and yet I appreciated it. It just didn't occur to me that some people who love Jesus wouldn't wanted to listen to sermons on their Ipod. Isn't it a given that alongside U2 and Coldplay and the Backstreet Boys, there should be Piper, Keller, and MacArthur. But, I don't take that for granted anymore. I have been enlightened, but I am not any less passionate to get people in the word listening to sermons of all shapes, sizes and colors. You may have never listened to a sermon, wouldn't dare dreaming of listening to a sermon when you didn't have to, but here's hoping you give it a try. Joshua 1:8 says "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." I find when I listen to sermons it challenges me in my thinking, provides great illustrations and life lessons, keeps me sharp and encouraged. It expands my worldview, gets my mind off myself and causes me to love the Word more and the world less. Sermons that are life changing bring light to my eyes, joy to my face and a skip to my step. So, here's hopin' you check out on of these sermons... Today would be a great one.

Dr. Wayne Grudem is amazing. Brilliant enough to write the systematic theology book that is both deep, expansive and practical and read by many. Humble enough to love his wife enough to leave a professor job so she could go to a warmer climate and enjoy better health. Gentle enough that when you listen to him, you sense his sincerity, kindness and that he is the real deal. I listened to his sermon last night and I was so challenged and encouraged and just humbled by his demeanor. He spoke at Piper's church, and he was so kind. He didn't come across like the leading theologian that he is. He is a professor at Phoenix Seminary, so this sermon is probably more teaching than preaching, but I really encourage you to listen to this. It could possibly change your life, especially if you have never really thought about how the Holy Spirit should/would change your daily life. An amazing treastise of the Holy Spirit in its look at how the Spirit should fill our lives. PLEASE, for the sake of all that is good and holy and wonderful, please, listen to this sermon...

Here is the link to the rest of your life being filled with the Spirit...

And, for ya Reformers out there, in case you have never seen this expansive, amazing, treasure of website, check this out: www.monergism.com

It has sermons, aritcles, books and much, much more!

John Piper - Don't Waste your Life

So, I was thinking about my selections this week, and as good as I thought John Piper's biography of David Brainerd was, I realized that I probably should have waited a bit before I put that on, especially for those who don't know John Piper. But, since, what is done is done, I wanted to bring back John Piper with a classic, amazing, stirring, convicting, and challenging sermon that he did at the Campus Crusade conference. The title Don't Waste your Life really says it all. I have watched it on DVD and I love it. It is classic John Piper preaching it up, down, and all around...

Here is the link for this sermon.

Enjoy!

Andy Stanley - The Lord's Prayer

I don’t plan on doing series or try to link up speakers back to back. It might end up that way, though. It did today. Yesterday, I had a great sermon by Louie Giglio who gave this message at Northpoint Church where the preacher today, Andy Stanley is the senior pastor. He is the son of famous pastor Charles Stanley and has continued the legacy of great preachers. Andy is funny, articulate, dynamic and very practical. Yesterday’s sermon by Louie was a great set up for the message today. As we realize how big God really is, we have a new appreciation for the Lord’s Prayer – Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name… The bigger view we have of God, the more it will shape how and what we pray. Andy preaches in Matthew on the Lord’s prayer and though it is nothing earth shattering new, it is so good. It is refreshing, encouraging, challenging, and it has been perspective altering for me. It has changed how I have prayed every day since I have heard it. Most sermons you can’t remember the next day. Andy has a gift of making the complex, simple and the simple, memorable. This sermon is part 2 of 3 but it covers the entire Lord’s prayer.

Click here to download or watch the sermon.

Louie Giglio - Signficant Insignificance

I first heard Louie Giglio at a youth pastors conference. His talk was monumental in terms of enlarging my perspective of God and shrinking the pride of me. A quote he used during this talk actually turned into a title of a book he wrote, "I am not but I know I Am." It was so good I bought a DVD copy and showed my youth staff. This sermon is not the same that I heard, but this one uses some of the same material to enlarge our view of God and shrink our view of me. For all amateur or wannabe astronomers, this sermon is for you...

Louie also has an amazing ministry working side-by-side with Chris Tomlin, as they team up on songs and in concert. Much of what Louie says, Chris is singing and vice-versa. Louie runs the 268 generation ministry and organizes the Passion conferences. He is best buddies with Andy Stanley and listening to his latest message from the Passion '07 conference, figure he must have taken the Perspectives course that I am taking right now. He is all about God spreading the glory of God to the world and does it as a super dynamic speaker and a man of the word...

You can stream it or watch it with a little click here. (I recommend watching if you can so as to see the pictures of the galaxy that he shows.) Just scroll down to the bottom of the screen and find 9.11.05 - Significant Insignificance.

Dr. John Piper - A biography of David Brainerd

I have been thinking a lot today about what kind of sermons will be a part of this blog and I realize this task of picking a sermon for a day, especially this early on is crazy hard. So, I figured I am just going to focus on sermons that have a huge impact and let it land where it falls... (And worse come to worse, just pick a Piper sermon:)

Todays choice is more a biography than a sermon, but it is John Piper, so it is really a passionate, heart-wrenching sermon in every flavor of the word. This sermon is about a guy named David Brainerd. He was a Missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. Born in Connecticut in 1718, he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-nine in 1747. Jonathan Edwards preached the funeral sermon and published the diary which David had kept.

John Piper does this kind of oral biography every year for his conference, and though I have heard quite a few of these amazing talks (Judson, Calvin, etc.) this one just hit home in so many ways. David Brainerd, a man committed to reaching many for the gospel, suffered so greatly and though his worldly plans fell apart, God led through him a resurgence of the modern missionary movement.

What Piper writes about Brainerd should give him all the credibility he needs:

"Why has Brainerd's life made the impact that it has? One obvious reason is that Jonathan Edwards took the Diaries and published them as a Life of Brainerd in 1749. But why has this book never been out of print? Why did John Wesley say, "Let every preacher read carefully over the 'Life of Brainerd (p. 3)'"? Why was it written of Henry Martyn that "perusing the life of David Brainerd, his soul was filled with a holy emulation of that extraordinary man; and after deep consideration and fervent prayer, he was at length fixed in a resolution to imitate his example"? (see note 2) Why did William Carey regard Edwards' Life of Brainerd as a sacred text? Why did Robert Morrison and Robert McCheyne of Scotland and John Mills of America and Frederick Schwartz of Germany and David Livingston of England and Andrew Murray of South Africa and Jim Elliot of modern America look upon Brainerd with a kind of awe and draw power from him the way they and countless others did (p. 4)?

I encourage you to listen and be encouraged...

Click this link to listen to the sermon.
Click this link to read the sermon.

Dr. Tim Keller - Blessed are the Poor

The first sermon posting is always going to be a difficult one, so I am first going to use the cliche "not necessarily in this order" out to just allow me to start somewhere.

The first sermon is from Tim Keller... If you haven't heard of Tim Keller, you have been missing out. I was just recently told about him, and already I have felt my world being altered and shifted in many ways. How do you pick a sermon by this guy as the one to listen to? Many may question this one as the one, but I just was struck with his insight and claims about the poor andI found it so enlightening, I guess I kind of wanted it to be a foundation for all that comes next. There are probably more exciting preachers to listen to, whose voices fluctuate more often, who jump and down and make you cry, but in terms of experience, thought provoking passion and insight, the Spirit of God is in Mr. Keller.

Tim Keller is an author, a speaker and the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbysterian Church in New York City, New York. For a great link of his resources, click here.

The sermon is titled, Blessed are the Poor.

If you want to download the link, click here. (You will need to scroll down find it under serving sermons... At the risk of repeating myself, this really is an amazing link of resources for Tim Keller, by the way... Check it out!)

If you want to stream the talk, click here.

I was trying to think of how to I could qualify or quantify what a sermon should be that would enable it to make the "cut" as part of the sermon of the day blog. And I feel unworthy of even commentating on men whom I am influenced by and in such respect of... When you get down to it, what sets a sermon apart in such a way, that it is really isn't just a preference thing. What makes one worship song on a Chris Tomlin CD a #1 hit where another is just o.k? And why does the one song resonate with so many? In some ways, sermons are I guess similar to this? A fresh look at a familiar passage? Some extra time of mediating and living the Word that week? Some prayer and fasting?

This sermon says things that I have never heard about the poor, words that can literally transform a life. Keller's words on the poor, albeit not a new concept or his invention, are so clearly explained that it has begun a change in my life in a way that when I look back in years to come will have this sermon as the catalytic point...

Enjoy!