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Title:  Part 1 The Essence of the Unwasted Life, Part 2 The Origin of the Unwasted Life, Part 3a The Appearance of the Unwasted Life, Part 3b The Appearance of the Unwasted Life [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library
Description:  From the Don't Waste Your Life Regional Conference Spring 2008. A phenomenal set of messages on the unwasted life! Piper answers the questions: "What is the ultimate aim of the life that truly counts?", "What must happen for such a life to be lived?", and "What does this life look like?"
Other Media:  Transcript Part 1, Part 2, Part 3a, Part 3b (website)

Labels: audio, christian hedonism, faith, favorites, foreign missions, God's will, idolatry, sovereignty, suffering and sacrifice, the unwasted life

Title:  Oh, That I May Never Loiter on My Heavenly Journey! (Reflections on the Life and Ministry of David Brainerd) [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library (Biographies)
Description:  Despite his almost constant, debilitating pain and depression, David Brainerd persevered to take the Gospel of Jesus to the unreached Indians of the early American frontier. Brainerd only lived 29 years. But (owing mostly to his biography by Jonathan Edwards) his life has been used to incalculable effect for the Kingdom of God. He didn't waste his life.
"The list of missionaries who testify to the inspiration of Brainerd’s Life through the work of Jonathan Edwards is longer than any of us knows: Francis Asbury, Thomas Coke, William Carey, Henry Martyn, Robert Morrison, Samuel Mills, Fredrick Schwartz, Robert M’Cheyne, David Livingstone, Andrew Murray. And a few days before he died, Jim Elliot, who was martyred by the Aucas, entered in his diary, 'Confession of pride—suggested by David Brainerd’s Diary yesterday—must become an hourly thing with me.'"
"There are a few Indians—perhaps several hundreds—who owe their everlasting life to the direct love and ministry of David Brainerd.... If we live 29 years or if we live 99 years, would not any hardships be worth the saving of one person from the eternal torments of hell for the everlasting enjoyment of the glory of God?"
"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, christian hedonism, faith, favorites, foreign missions, Grace, ministry, sovereignty, suffering and sacrifice, testimony, the unwasted life

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:  How Few There Are Who Die So Hard! (Suffering and Success in the Life of Adoniram Judson: The Cost of Bringing Christ to Burma) [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library (Biographies)
Description:  John Piper tells the story of one of my spiritual heroes, Adoniram Judson.
"Our Lord Jesus said to us in very solemn words, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit' (John 12:24). Then he adds this: 'Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life' (John 12:25). In other words, a fruitful life and an eternal life come from this: dying like a seed and hating your life in this world. What overwhelms me, as I ponder this and trace the life of Adoniram Judson, America's first foreign missionary, is how strategic it was that he died so many times and in so many ways."
"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, churchplanting, faith, favorites, foreign missions, ministry, suffering and sacrifice, testimony, the unwasted life

Title:  My Gospel Journey [MP3]
Speaker:  Dick Kaufmann
Source:  Acts 29 Multimedia
Description:  Dick Kaufmann tells his own story of ministry, suffering, and God's way of teaching about his grace. A personal and very applicable message about how the Gospel relates to our lives on a daily, practical basis.
Other Media:  Timeline & Notes (website)

Labels: audio, churchplanting, favorites, Grace, growth, idolatry, ministry, suffering and sacrifice, testimony

Title:  Camels in the Road [MP3]
Speaker:  Floyd McClung
Source:  All Nations: Floyd and Sally McClung Media
Description:  "Floyd tells an amazing story about the night he almost ran over a camel while driving in Afghanistan. He draws one of the 'five most important messages of my life' from the story."

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

Title:  Single in Christ (A Name Better than Sons and Daughters) [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library
Description:  John Piper gives a solidly biblical reminder to Christians in our Modern, Western culture that the Bible holds a special place for people who choose to worship God in a lifetime of singleness, celibacy, and service for Jesus. He explains how both marriage and singleness have their benefits and drawbacks, but that singleness is uniquely positioned for ministry, and discipling, in particular. Singles and married people should all listen to this sermon. Piper helps put natural family relationships in perspective to the potential of giving birth to an exponential spiritual family in the Spirit of Christ.
Other Media:  Transcript (website)

Labels: audio, christian hedonism, discipling, favorites, foreign missions, ministry, singleness dating courtship and marriage, suffering and sacrifice, the unwasted life

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:  Don't Waste Your Life [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Don't Waste Your Life
Description:  A powerful message warning us not to waste our lives, nor to waste our deaths... to not just—as Adrian Rogers once put it—"draw a breath and draw a salary."
Other Media:  Transcript (website), Full Book (PDF)

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

Title:  World Missions and the End of History [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library
Description:  "God is most glorified in us when we are so satisfied in him that we accept suffering and death for his sake in order to extend our joy to the unreached peoples of the earth."
Piper explains the difference and relationship between domestic ministries and frontier missions to the world's unreached people groups.
Other Media:  Transcript (website)

Labels: audio, christian hedonism, evangelism, favorites, foreign missions, God's will, sovereignty, suffering and sacrifice

Title:  Doing Missions When Dying Is Gain [MP3]
Speaker:  John Piper
Source:  Desiring God Resource Library
Description:  "Is Christ so valuable to you that no loss you experience for his sake will feel like losing in the end?" One of my absolute favorite sermons! Very highly recommended.

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