Sermons That Make You Catch Your Breath


I have been enjoying listening to a whole series of John Piper sermons that my husband put on our I-pod.
It is amusing, how this came to be..... I left my I-pod on a play list in my car when I ran in the grocery store. I came back out, and started my car, forgetting the "pod" was left on.
I thought I had been listening to a local Christian radio station, and could not figure out why they were having a John Piper marathon.
Once I returned home I reached for my I-pod and it dawned on my cloudy mind. "Ah! The Pod was left on"

So began my journey through his sermons.
Each day I have been encouraged, humbled, & brought to tears as I wade through the word with him.
I am giving the link to my favorite sermon and I urge you to listen to it.
It is readily available on the internet for your listening pleasure.


Here is the link:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2008/3204_The_Mind_of_Christ_Looking_Out_for_the_Interests_of_Others/

Here is one of my favorite parts:

Humility and Its Source—The Cross

And where does that other-oriented commitment come from? Verse 3 says, “In humility count others more significant than yourselves.” It comes from humility. Literally: “lowliness.” This is the great opposite of a sense of entitlement. Humility is the opposite of “You owe me.” Paul said, “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish” (Romans 1:14). In other words, they didn’t owe him. He owed them.

Why? Why do Christians walk through life feeling a humble sense that we owe service to people, rather than them owing us? The answer is that Christ loved us and died for us and forgave us and accepted us and justified us and gave us eternal life and made us heirs of the world when he owed us nothing. He treated us as worthy of his service, when we were not worthy of his service. He took thought not only for his own interests but for ours. He counted us as greater than himself: “Who is the greater,” he said, “one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

That is where our humility comes from. We feel overwhelmed by God’s grace: bygone grace in the cross and moment-by-moment arriving grace promised for our everlasting future. Christians are stunned into lowliness. Freely you have been served, freely serve.

So the crucial relational mark of the culture of our church should be Philippians 2:4: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” This is the “mind” or the “mindset” that we should have in life together. This is the relational atmosphere where God will grant wisdom for the perplexing work of living in this world.

{Passage from Desiring God Ministries}

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