Adam White

I’ll be honest with you; I find reading my bible difficult and unless I am willing to sit down for an extended period of time and get into to some proper study with additional books for assistance I very rarely do it. With the new year I am hoping to get into some regular study time as I know it is nothing but help but I find that listening to people talk about the bible is a lot easier.

This is where my faith-based podcasts come in. I was first introduced to some preachers from around the world when I first started getting into God properly and haven’t stopped listening since.

I have dabbled with a number of different speakers over the years but below are the ones I listen to regularly and try and keep up to date with:

 

Andy Stanley (North Point Community Church)

http://www.northpoint.org/messages

Andy Stanley (along with the brilliant Louie Giglio) was the first preacher I listened to from another church. He heads up one of the largest churches in America and is a very gifted speaker. He is in his 40s and is very down to Earth in the way he speaks. I find the topics he covers excellent for new Christians and even though he is usually quite light on the doctrine I still find his talks excellent to listen to.

 

John Piper (Desiring God)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/

I would describe John Piper as being at the opposite end of the spectrum to Andy Stanley. I first came across him when when I was still new to the Christian world and found him to be a little heavy and hard to listen to. Coming back to him years later I find him amazing. He seems to know so much about God and the bible and this shows in his very comprehensive messages. He is currently preaching his way through the book of John and has been for well over a year now. Full of doctrine and a definite pick for anyone that wants to learn more about their bible and God.

 

Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)

http://www.marshillchurch.org/

Where would a list of preachers be without Mark Driscoll. A man who is still very young for a preacher in his late 30s he has an approach to God and the bible that just rubs off on any of his listeners. He is the only person I know who can bring humour and deep conviction to a message with ease. He is very tough and holds nothing back in his messages but talks with such love that you can’t help but be gripped. He has recently started a series with the aim to preach through every chapter of the book of Luke in 3 years. A stunning speaker and highly recommended to everyone.

 

Matt Chandler (The Village Church)

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/

I have only been listening to Matt Chandler for a little while and found him to be a very good speaker in the Mark Driscoll mould. Sadly, late last year, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour and understandingly hasn’t been speaking for a while. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and young family.

 

Mark Thornett, Nigel Howarth and Colin Thornton (Gateway Church Swindon)

http://gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk/audio/

And how can I complete a list of preaches without mentioning my own church? While I don’t listen to the online recording often as I usually listen to it first-hand I do recommend it to anyone in the Swindon area if they are interested in finding a local church or just getting an idea of what our church is like.

 

View the entire series

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Over the past couple of weeks I have been listening to some sermons and a couple of statements that were made have really jumped out and stuck with me…

The first was from Mark Driscoll when he was talking about how as Christians we are called to serve but we need to check our attitudes to why we serve:

We shouldn’t do things for God because we have to, we should do them because we get to!

I enjoy serving and helping people but I still look at it as something I am called to do by God when really I should look at it as something I get to do for God. Looking at it in that slightly different way makes the things I do more of a pleasure and less of a chore.

The second quote was from Andy Stanley and he was talking about what faith is. He gave a fantastic (biblical) definition based on Hebrews 11:

Faith is confidence that God is who he says he is and he’ll do what he has promised to do

Faith is not a power that we get and can grow in. It’s not the biblical version of the Force! It is simply believing in God and trusting that he will fulfill the promises he has made.

And finally this was attached to the bottom of an email I got sent the other week and went straight onto a Post-It note on my wall:

Happy moments – Praise God
Difficult moments – Seek God
Quiet moments – Worship God
Painful moments – Trust God
Every moment – Thank God

This stayed with me from the moment I read it as it is basically a very accurate guide to how to live your life!

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Mark Driscoll recently spoke at the Brighton Conference (I didn’t attend but I have since started to catch up on what I missed) and in one of his talks he spoke about the Holy Spirit and how Jesus wasn’t the ultimate missionary alone.

Isn’t it funny how a lot of teaching about Jesus says he was born, died and rose again. Whatever happened to the 30 years when he walked on the Earth? A lot of people miss this part out but it is crucial to Christians to understand this fully. Jesus could have very easily have clicked his fingers and forgiven all our sins and yet he chose to die on that cross to show us the sacrifice and the cost. In the same way he walked on the Earth for 30 years to show us how it should be done!

But he didn’t do it alone. Jesus didn’t start his ministry until after a very significant moment: His baptism in water and the Holy Spirit. Until the Holy Spirit had come and rested on him he did not have what was required to do what needed to be done. I believe that as a normal man Jesus chose not to use some of the divine powers he had. Instead the Holy Spirit enabled him to do the amazing things he did to show us how it could be done. With the Holy Spirit in us we can walk in his shoes and do as he did. With the Holy Spirit resting on us we can achieve great things for God.

However, after Jesus was baptised and had received the Holy Spirit what was the first thing he did? He didn’t come up from that water and head straight to the people. The first thing he did was head out into the wilderness. He needed 40 days of silence, solitude, prayer and fasting to prepare him for what was to come.

Silence
I surround myself with noise all the time. I have music at work and in my car. I have TV and films at home. I even wake up to news on the radio. There is actually so much noise in my life that when I try to fall asleep I struggle because songs are still playing on loop in my brain. How am I meant to hear God through all this racket? It is time to turn off the stereo and listen for God in the silence.

Solitude
This goes hand in hand with the silence. If I surround myself with people all the time they just count as another distraction. I am not saying that I have to live as a hermit but sometimes I should say no to a trip to the cinema and stay in and spend time with God for a change.

Prayer
Silence and solitude without prayer seems silly to me. Prayer is the most important thing we can do in life (along with reading and following the word of God) and there is no better time to do it than when everything is quiet. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pray with other people as this is also important but Jesus thought it important on a number of occasions to get away from the busyness of life and seek solitude to pray to God.

Fasting
Fasting is a new thing to me that I don’t know much about. I have only ever done it at lent but feel like I should do it more regularly. It doesn’t have to be food by the way, that is just the traditional thing to fast from. You could fast from TV or alcohol. There are lots of choices. The important thing as far as I am aware is not to just fast, but whenever you get that feeling of hunger for whatever you are fasting from you must seek God. Use the time that you would be doing whatever it is you have given up to pray and read your bible.

I can’t write an article on this without mentioning the fact that Jesus was also tempted in his 40 days. This will happen to all of us whenever we do something like this to seek God. The devil wants to stop us from getting close to our father in heaven and will try all the tricks in his arsenal to stop us. Like Jesus we must put our trust in the word and the devil will flee from us.

So, I am saying that we should all go and camp in a field for 40 days? Of course not! As none of us are preparing to do what Jesus went onto do I don’t think we have to go to such extremes, but maybe trying to do this on a smaller scale could help us. If you feel like there is something amazing that God wants to do with you in the near future don’t you think you should get yourself prepared? So ask for the Spirit to rest on you, seek God in silence, solitude, prayer and fasting and you will be ready to walk in Jesus’ steps.

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