the Good Question     //     Audio Archives

Title:  Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals, and the Political Welfare (Reflections on the Life and Labor of William Wilberforce) [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library (Biographies)
Description:  John Piper delivers the encouraging account of William Wilberforce, galvinizing Christians to push hard for justice without relenting.
Wilberforce was "no ordinary pragmatist or political utilitarian, even though he was one of the most practical men of his day. He was a doer. One of his biographers said, 'He lacked time for half the good works in his mind.' James Stephen, who knew him well, remarked, 'Factories did not spring up more rapidly in Leeds and Manchester than schemes of benevolence beneath his roof.' 'No man,' Wilberforce wrote, 'has a right to be idle.' 'Where is it,' he asked, 'that in such a world as this, [that] health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate?'"
"Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith." (Hebrews 13:7)
Other Media:  Transcript (website)

Labels: audio, culture, faith, favorites, leadership, mercy and justice, racial harmony, suffering and sacrifice, testimony, the unwasted life

Title:  Church Planting in Corinth [MP3]
Speaker:  Mark Driscoll
Source:  Mars Hill Church Media Library
Description:  As part of the "Christians Gone Wild" sermon series on 1 Corinthians, Mark covers Acts 18:1-18.
"As a strategic church planter, Paul focused his efforts on cities like Athens and Corinth because culture emanates from urban centers."
"In the earliest days of Christianity, our faith spread from city to city so that by AD 300, 50 percent of Roman cities were Christian, but only 10 percent of the rural area was Christian. Christianity was so identified with urban life that to be a pagan meant that you lived on a farm.
Corinth was a port city and the center of ancient trade and tourism.... If the city was impacted for Jesus, its influence for the gospel would reach far and wide."

Labels: audio, churchplanting, culture, leadership, ministry, the city

Title:  The Gospel-Driven Church [MP3]
Speaker:  Dick Kaufmann
Source:  Acts 29 Multimedia
Description:  "The Gospel is out not to reform people but to transform people. Churches that preach for behavioral reformation tend to elevate middle-class values to the level of biblical norm and focus on external change. We resolve to seek transformation at the motivational and character level, not merely behavioral modification."
"The root of all of our problems is that something other than Christ is serving as our functional savior. Therefore we neither tell people: 'You shouldn't act like that—stop it!' nor 'You need to accept yourself as you are!' Rather, we call them to repent of their idols and trust in Christ who through his life and death is the only one who can give them all they are longing for."
Other Media:  Notes (website)

Labels: audio, churchplanting, culture, Grace, idolatry, ministry, preaching and teaching, testimony

Title:  Racial Harmony and Interracial Marriage [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library
Description:  "My aim today is to argue from Scripture and experience that interracial marriage is not only permitted by God but is a positive good in our day. That is, it is not just to be tolerated, but celebrated."
An extremely controversial message, Piper's message is one of clarity and a radical adherence to the Word of the Gospel—very much worth a listen.
Other Media:  Transcript (website)

Labels: audio, culture, idolatry, racial harmony, singleness dating courtship and marriage

Title:  Part 1 Being the Church in Our Culture, Part 2 Preaching the Gospel, Part 3 Doing Justice [MP3]
Speaker:  Tim Keller
Source:  Reform & Resurge Conference 2006
Description:  Keller discusses the role of the church in culture, the importance of cities to the church, preaching against idolatry as a means of exalting Jesus in the Gospel, and the biblical importance of doing justice as a means to a more comprehensive embodiment of Jesus and his Gospel in our culture and the world.
Other Media:  Article (PDF)

Labels: audio, church, churchplanting, culture, evangelism, favorites, Grace, heart, idolatry, mercy and justice, ministry, preaching and teaching, the city