Sermons

A few of my all-time favorite sermons.  Two categories – Devotional/Personal Walk with God and Ministry-Related sermons (good for growing as a minister of the gospel). Let me know in the Comments what are your personal favorite sermons (that I missed).  All are free unless otherwise noted.


Devotional/Personal Walk with God

  • Josh Harris – Self Control in a Wired World – Very convicting for me – “A little web surfing, a little Facebook, a little folding of the hands around the smart phone and spiritual poverty will come upon you like a robber.”  The first time I really understood how essential Self Control (self-denial) is to following Jesus.
  • David Wells – “The Supremacy of Christ”; long (hour and 10 minutes) and fairly serious talk (no Mark Driscoll style humor).  But oddly compelling.  I thought it was outstanding.  Maybe it’s the British accent.  Or maybe it’s because he helped me understand the book of Hebrews and Christ/Christianity in a new and fresh way.
  • Tim Keller - OK, it’s really hard to pick a few from my favorite preacher but here are some of my favorites:
    • The Furious Love of Jesus - Short and to the point.  Great for understanding suffering and how God relates to it.
    • Your Plans, God’s Plans – Gospel-centered talk on Decision Making and the Will of God - “God doesn’t so much tell you how to get guided – He tells you how to become the kind of person that can be guided”
    • Cost of Mission – “Whenever you really meet God, whenever you meet him face to face, it changes you into a person of mission”
    • Inside Out -
    • Both good people and bad people in their natural state are being good and bad for the same reason – to get God off of their backs, to be in control of their own lives, to be their own masters
    • The only difference is that religious people don’t know they’re doing it
    • Non-religious people know they’re doing it; they know they’re avoiding God
    • Religious people are in worse shape
    • That’s why Jesus shows over and over the bad man being saved and the good man being lost over and over again. Why?
    • B/c the outside in approach not only does not work, it so deadly b/c although both groups are avoiding God, the religious people don’t know what they are doing and they’re shocked if you tell them they’re doing it and they’re blind to it, they can’t fix it
    • Christ our Life - Idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing.  You will worship something – God or something else
    • Genesis Series - The Gospel According to God – On sale for $12.25 right now.  Phenomenal 10 part series on Genesis.  As Genesis sets the foundation of everything (creation, sin, who is man, who is God, how they relate), you will walk away from this series with a firm foundational understanding of God and man.
  • Stephen Um’s sermon on Galatians 1: The Rescue (the last one on this page)
    • He’s very heady (more so than even Keller).  And he’s not quite as polished as Keller.  But INCREDIBLE insights.
    • The first 15 minutes are a little heady and slow but it gets good after that.



Ministry Related

  • CJ Mahaney – Pastoral Character and Loving People
    • Speaking from I Cor. 1 – how to find evidences of grace in people’s lives (really relates to discipleship).  He makes the claim that is our primary jobs as spiritual leaders is to point out evidences of grace- where we see God working in people’s lives.  REALLY good.  If you don’t want to take the time to listen to the whole thing, just start at minute 39
    • Watch it here: http://www.vimeo.com/5290078
  • Tim Keller - Preaching to Believers and Unbelievers – How to teach (both large group and small group studies) in a way that applies to both non-Christians and Christians.  ”All preaching can be evangelistic if you understood that all behavior is rooted in faith”.  He also details the defeater beliefs.
  • Tim Keller – Preaching to the Heart – $34 for the series and worth every penny.  Invaluable resource for anyone that teaches scripture (whether in large group preaching or small group Bible studies)

Photo Courtesy of Chaval Brasil via Flickr