Family (Community)

  • Genesis 12:1-3 read or listen online
  • John 1:12-13 read or listen online
  • Romans 12:10-16read or listen online
  • The Community of Jesus | Tim Keller | MP3 Jesus not only saves us from our sins, he weaves us into a new human community. That community is characterized by a reversal of values. When we realize that we are both sinners and saved by grace, we will have freedom from the values that previously defined us, and yet a regard and love for those who don't share our values.
  • Eating with Jesus | Tim Keller | MP3 Many Americans disregard Christianity not because they don't believe in God, but because they don't believe in the church. Jesus exhorts the church to be a "city on a hill," a community where people love and serve one another, in fellowship with God as well as with our neighbor. When he fulfills our deepest needs, we can find resources that we never knew we had for serving others.
  • The Gospel, the Church and the World | Tim Keller | MP3 The church is described as "living stones" to represent it as a deeply interconnected community. We must neither give into culture nor withdraw from culture, but maintain our beliefs while engaging and serving the world. The power to maintain this balance comes from being secure in Christ and united as a church body, with him as our cornerstone.
  • Hope, Race and Power | Tim Keller | MP3 Racial and cultural differences exist. They cannot be resolved by simply embracing broad-mindedness, but by adjusting our lives and forming deep relationships with people from whom we are different. These relationships will enable us to finally view all aspects of God’s glory.
Sonship (God as our Father)
  • To Be Called Your Son | Tim Keller | MP3 By adopting us as "sons" into His family by the sacrificial love of Jesus, God gives us deep security about our status with Him, intimate access to Him, and the future inheritance of the new heavens and new earth that He will one day fashion. Because Christians are all part of one family, we are called to be a community marked by radical commitment, great transparency, free sharing of resources, and life-shaping impact on the lives of each other.
  • God as Father: Understanding the Doctrine of Adoption in God's Word | CJ Mahaney | Sovereign Grace Ministries | MP3 From Galatians 4:1-7, Mahaney explores the profound truth that in the gospel God has adopted us into his family as sons.
  • The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith | Tim Keller | Book Keller examines the parable of the Prodigal Son showing that the elder and younger son represent humanity's two major approaches to life and that they are both lost. He presents the gospel of Jesus as the heart of the Christian message and different from both these outlooks.
Parenting Marriage, Singleness & Sexuality
  • Singleness - The Biblical Guidelines (2 parts) | Tim & Kathy Keller | MP3 Timothy and Kathy Keller discuss the Biblical view of dating, sex, and romance; the goodness of singleness; and the Christian ordering of the different types of love. This talk was done in an open forum setting and is followed by a Q&A.
  • Cultivating a Healthy Marriage | Tim & Kathy Keller | MP3 Using the metaphor of cultivating a garden, Timothy and Kathy Keller address methods of cultivating healthy marriages by exploring eight practical areas in marriage: planning and planting, roles, headship and submission, fertilizing and watering, love language, sex, conflict resolution, forgiveness and repentance, and spiritual life together. This talk is followed by a Q&A.
  • An Intoxicating Forgiveness | Dave Harvey | Sovereign Grace Ministries | MP3 When we truly forgive others, we live out the forgiveness God has granted us. Forgiven sinners forgive sin. In this message, Dave Harvey explains the importance of forgiveness in marriage. But the forgiveness he describes does not merely ignore sin; instead, it finds a basis for mercy in the cross of Christ.
  • Put on the Lord Jesus Christ | Joshua Harris | Sovereign Grace Ministries | MP3 Lust is an uncomfortable topic, but one that needs to be discussed between Christian men. Sex is not our enemy; lust is. Sex needs to be reclaimed for God’s purposes so we can live this area of our lives in holiness and for his glory. Joshua Harris speaks to men about getting off the treadmill of guilt and sin associated with lust.
  • Love, Lust and Liberation | Tim Keller | MP3 Lust exists, it is powerful, and we must respect its power. The Bible rejoices in sex and sexual desire, but lust is an impersonal, inordinate desire and an idolatrous search for meaning. Lust can be overcome if you esteem Jesus as your bridegroom and the lover of your soul.
  • Sexuality and Christian Hope | Tim Keller | MP3 Christianity presents a revolutionary view of sex, singleness, and marriage that rejects both traditional and modern conceptions of the purpose of sex. Ultimately, our hope in our future family, future journey and certainty of our true love, Jesus Christ, shapes our attitudes towards sex, singleness, and marriage.
  • Sex and the Supremacy of Christ | John Piper | Free PDF Book (or buy from Amazon) This book takes one of the most abused and misused gifts from God and puts it squarely in the center of the biblical perspective both married and single men and women are called to have. Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, the contributors to this unique volume invite you to both celebrate sex for what God made it to be and fight what sin has turned it into. Twelve conference messages serve as the content for this book. Read, listen, watch or download these messages. (Especially recommended are the Introductory and Closing Messages. Highly recommended for single people in addition to marrieds.)
  • The Love Dare | Stephen Kendrick | Book As featured in the popular new movie Fireproof, from the team that brought us the #1 best selling DVD Facing the Giants, The Love Dare is a 40-day guided devotional experience that will lead your heart back to truly loving your spouse while learning more about the design, nature, and source of true love. Each reading includes Scripture, a statement of principle, the day's "dare," and a journaling area and check box to chart progress.
Biblical Eldership Counseling (Pornography, Divorce, Addiction, Depression, How to counsel)
  • The Pastor & the Counseling Process | Andy Farmer | Sovereign Grace Ministries | MP3 The greatest distinction between secular counseling and biblical counseling is that pastors personally invest in the lives of those they counsel. Pastors are called not merely to give counsel on the go but to also walk alongside those they counsel over time. And while there is no single formula pastors can follow to invest in such a way, in this seminar Andy Farmer provides road markers to help keep pastors on the right path, such as having a common purpose and getting rooted in the gospel.
  • Porn Again Christian | Mark Driscoll | Book God tells us that his people tend to satisfy their thirst not by drinking from his streams of living water, but instead drinking from man-made toilets (Jer. 2:13). This metaphor is particularly adept in a world where a legion of men's magazines and porno providers become wealthy by selling glasses of toilet water to thirsty men across our nation, many of whom claim to be sons of God. Meanwhile, the church alone has access to the living water from God's perfect Word, but largely fails to teach men masculinity in any area, particularly regarding their sexuality.
  • Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change | Paul David Tripp | Book This is a comprehensive treatment of how God uses people as tools of change in the lives of others, people who themselves are in need of change. God’s plan is that through the faithful ministry of every part, the whole body will grow to maturity in Christ (Ephesians 4).
  • How People Change | Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp | Book This book explains the biblical pattern for change in a clear, practical way we can apply to the challenges of daily life. More than just a biblical formula, this book shows how God is at work to make us more like Jesus.
  • When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man | Edward T. Welch | Book Welch shows from scripture that the antidote to the fear of man--being too concerned with what other people think of you--is the fear of the Lord--a deep awe and respect for God. And that brings great freedom to our everday lives.
  • Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture | David Powlison | Book This book explores the Bible and people—how to embrace, probe and unravel scripture in light of Jesus and how to do the same with our communities and struggles of daily life.
  • Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community | David Powlison | Book Powlison digs deep into the heart of how God would have us relate to one another as a community. Not just for counselors, this book can help us all express faith and love more naturally in our relationships and strengthen our communities in the gospel.