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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:  John Newton: The Tough Roots of His Habitual Tenderness [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library (Biographies)
Description:  This time Piper recounts the life and ways of another of my spiritual heroes, John Newton. Once a debauched slave trader, God transformed Newton into a balanced man of God by His grace: tender, yet tough. In this sermon, you'll find a few reasons why I love quoting John Newton.
"It seems to me that we are always falling off the horse on one side or the other in this matter of being tough and tender—wimping out on truth when we ought to be lion-hearted, or wrangling with anger when we ought to be weeping. I know it's a risk to take up this topic and John Newton in a setting like this, where some of you need a good (tender!) kick in the pants to be more courageous, and others of you confuse courage with what William Cowper called 'a furious and abusive zeal.' Oh how rare are the pastors [or, read: 'Christians'] who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel."
"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, favorites, Grace, growth, leadership, mercy and justice, ministry, preaching and teaching, racial harmony, suffering and sacrifice, testimony

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:  Preaching and Teaching Jesus from Scripture [MP3]
Speaker:  Mark Driscoll
Source:  Mars Hill Church Media Library
Description:  "A message originally given to Acts 29 pastors, Pastor Mark Driscoll offers ten cautions and encouragements for preachers, that they may effectively fulfill their call to proclaim the gospel clearly."

Labels: audio, Grace, leadership, ministry, preaching and teaching