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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:  Arm Yourself to Be Aimed in the Right Direction [MP3]
Speaker:  Floyd McClung
Source:  All Nations: Floyd and Sally McClung Media
Description:  "Floyd shares his conviction that every believer will suffer, the question is whether we will suffer for the right things. Mixing humor with straight talk, Floyd shares why he believes we should embrace suffering rather than run from it." (Also available at SermonCloud.com)

Labels: audio, christian hedonism, favorites, foreign missions, God's will, mercy and justice, suffering and sacrifice, the unwasted life

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

Title:  Urban Promise [MP3]
Speaker:  Collin McCartney
Source:  The Meeting House Audiocast

Labels: audio, favorites, Grace, growth, mercy and justice, ministry, testimony