“We serve a God who is not only powerful—not only does he have utter control of everything that's going on in our lives—but we serve one who has tasted death on our behalf.” – Alasdair Groves Alasdair Groves taught a breakout session at TGC’s 2021 National Conference titled, “Nothing Outside His Control” as a response to the anxiety that is common to our human experience and amplified through current events. Defining anxiety as “the reality that, in the fallen world, there will be suffering in o...
Sep 24, 2021•47 min
TGC hosted a panel discussion during the 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Motherhood and the Hope of the Gospel” with Christine Hoover, Trillia Newbell, Irene Sun, and Laura Wifler. Against the backdrop of such a difficult last year for mothers everywhere dealing with the reality of pandemic-driven changes, the panel offered words of hope for those who are tired and weary. Mental health, emotional health, relational strain, and all sorts of suffering and struggle common to motherhood were address...
Sep 17, 2021•46 min•Ep. 185
John Piper preached a message at TGC’s 2021 National Conference on “The Essential Achievement of Christ” from Hebrews 9:1-10:18. Through this text, Piper expounded upon six manifestations of Christ’s greatness, magnifying the central achievement—the removal of guilt—and the averting of the wrath of God from those who are in Christ Jesus. He preached: Christ the Great Absence Christ the Great Achievement Christ the Great Accession Christ the Great Application Christ the Great Arrival Christ the G...
Sep 10, 2021•51 min•Ep. 184
Jackie Hill Perry taught a message at TGC’s 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Steadfast Speech: A Mighty Little Tongue.” James chapter 3 formed the backdrop for her admonition to carefully control the tongue by the power of the Spirit. Perry taught that the tongue is accountable, the tongue is powerful, and the tongue is inconsistent. Creating a better world through our words, she suggested, comes by addressing those realities in three ways. She called her listeners to be honest, to behold, and to...
Sep 03, 2021•33 min•Ep. 183
Speaking at TGC’s 2021 National Conference, Dane Ortlund delivered a message titled “Gentle Savior, Gentle Shepherd.” He addressed a common insufficiency many believers—and church leaders, specifically—possess when it comes to really knowing Christ. Through four Old Testament passages, Ortlund outlined the gracious, merciful, compassionate character of God that “rolled out the red carpet and constructed a perfectly fitted throne” for the King who would appear in the New Testament to inhabit it. ...
Aug 27, 2021•39 min•Ep. 182
Vaneetha Rendall Risner delivered a message titled “Forgiveness: The Hardest and Most Life-Changing Thing We Can Do” at TGC’s 2021 Women’s Conference. Speaking from her own difficult experience learning to forgive someone who had hurt her deeply, she encouraged those listening to explore and understand what forgiveness really is—allowing God to heal them through the process. Risner clarified what forgiveness is and, just as importantly, what it is not, as she outlined what it means to forgive in...
Aug 20, 2021•44 min•Ep. 181
Jen Wilkin delivered a message at TGC’s 2021 National Conference called “Female Bravery and the Mission of God.” Walking through Scripture, Wilkin relayed stories of women who feared God rather than men and stood against the Serpent, risking their very lives. The imagery revealed in the stories, she taught, is the metaphor necessary for the modern church to understand in order to also be shrewd as a serpent and innocent as a dove—overcoming the enemy that wages war against our very souls. Hosted...
Aug 13, 2021•43 min•Ep. 180
Phillip Holmes moderated a panel with Carl Ellis and Walter Strickland at TGC's 2021 National Conference titled “Free at Last: The Gospel and the African American Experience 25 Years Later.” From the framework developed in Carl Ellis’s Free At Last , the panel addressed questions regarding the African American experience over the last 400 years, including history, cultural contexts, and cultural biases and how that has affected African Americans and their faith. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz ...
Aug 06, 2021•48 min•Ep. 179
Paige Brown taught a session at TGC's 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Kingdom Matters.” Many believers, she posited, focus their belief mainly on how we are saved (justification), while lessening the theological and practical importance of what we are saved to do. The kingdom, she proclaimed, is not only good for the future but is meant for today and should permeate every part of our world. And it is the role of the church—of every believer—to proclaim the goodness of the kingdom. Hosted by Simp...
Jul 30, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 178
Brett McCracken hosted a panel discussion at TGC's 2021 Women’s Conference with Alisa Childers, Preston Perry, and Trevin Wax titled “Before You Lose Your Faith: Deconstructing Doubt in the Church," addressing the topic of healthy deconstruction as discussed in the book by the same name. The panel addressed multiple questions, from what healthy deconstruction looks like to cultural structures that fuel deconstruction processes, to how believers address conversation about deconstruction, and much...
Jul 23, 2021•47 min•Ep. 177
Mike Kruger delivered a message at TGC’s 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Can I Lose My Faith? Understanding Apostasy.” Susan Pevensie, of The Chronicles of Narnia fame, serves as the jumping off point of the message, having been so central to the beginning of Lewis’s storyline, yet so glaringly absent from its conclusion. As Peter, her brother, explained, she was eventually “no longer a friend of Narnia.” Her story is reminiscent of many believers who seem to be strong in their faith but eventua...
Jul 16, 2021•43 min•Ep. 176
Christine Hoover delivered a message at TGC's 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Messy Beautiful Friendship: Learning to Love Others in a Christlike Way.” Speaking from her own experiences building friendships—first as a child, then as an adult—Hoover discussed the “wish dream”: the idealized vision of a perfect friendship that too many women embrace. She compared this to the reality of mature, biblical friendship that, despite all its flaws and blemishes, is a priceless gift from God. She looked a...
Jul 09, 2021•45 min•Ep. 175
Julius Kim delivered a message to the Bay Area Regional Chapter of TGC titled “Weakness & Witness” as part of the series “Testify: Bearing Witness to Christ in the Present Age.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 served as the text by which Kim encouraged his listeners to testify to the goodness of God even in the midst of overwhelming weakness. When we feel intimidated, overwhelmed, hopeless, powerless, paralyzed, and demoralized in the face of a culture that esteems success and shuns godliness, we are ...
Jul 02, 2021•50 min•Ep. 174
Sam Allberry delivered a message to the Arizona Regional Chapter of TGC titled “Is God Anti-Gay?” Springboarding from his own personal struggle with homosexuality, Allberry addressed the question of sexuality and its association with sin according to Jesus’s own words. He refuted the idea that Jesus was silent on the issue of sexual ethics; in fact, he intensified the already stringent sexual ethic of the Old Testament. Jesus’s expectation for his people in marriage and sexuality—just as in all ...
Jun 25, 2021•47 min•Ep. 173
Andy Davis delivered a message to the Carolinas Regional Chapter of TGC titled “How the Scriptures Equip” as a part of the series “Equipped for Every Good.” Teaching from 2 Timothy 3:14-17, he argued that scripture alone is perfectly sufficient to equip believers for our journey of salvation—from unbelief to faithful, growing followers of Jesus. He then applied that truth to the responsibility pastors steward as they preach and lead their churches. Summarizing Spurgeon, he challenged them, “Ther...
Jun 18, 2021•49 min•Ep. 172
Jason Cook delivered a message at TGC’s 2018 Carolinas Regional Conference titled “I Am Your Neighbor” as a part of their series “Equipped for Every Good.” Teaching from Luke 10, Cook addressed the nature of discipleship, particularly as it pertains to engaging culture, to the end that a disciple is one who loves God and his neighbor. Cook added the caveat that what we often consider to be love for neighbor may not actually reflect what it means to love others as ourselves. Hosted by Simplecast,...
Jun 11, 2021•45 min•Ep. 171
Paul Tripp delivered a message during PasCon2018 at Bethlehem College titled “Danger of Familiarity.” Directly addressing the pastors in the room, he directed their attention toward a single danger of life in the ministry—familiarity with the gospel. The overwhelming privilege of spending a life dedicated to understanding, declaring, and ministering the gospel can have the adverse effect of numbing pastors to the splendor of God and the gospel. Knowledge and experiences that once led to worship ...
Jun 04, 2021•53 min•Ep. 170
The current president of the Southern Baptist Convention is J. D. Greear, pastor at The Summit Church in North Carolina. The Summit Church has sent out more than 1,400 missionaries and planted more than 40 churches. Over the past few years, Greear has watched the SBC wrestle through sex abuse scandals, COVID 19, and the contentious presidential election. He’s got a pretty good handle on where the denomination sits and where he hopes it’s going. TGC senior writer Sarah Zylstra wrote about Greear ...
May 28, 2021•28 min•Ep. 169
"One of the best things you can do to learn to pray is to follow the best models, and they're in Scripture." – Don Carson Don Carson led a session for TGC’s 2018 Bay Area regional conference titled “New Power” as a part of the series “Being the Church in a Foreign Land.” All new believers, he taught, learn to pray through imitation—by hearing and practicing the prayers of the more mature believers around them. His admonition to his listeners was that believers also imitate the Pauline prayer fou...
May 21, 2021•46 min•Ep. 168
Russell Moore led a session for TGC’s 2017 Arizona regional conference titled “Discipleship and Temptation” as a part of their series “Help Me Follow Jesus.” In his message, Moore addressed four questions that arise from Genesis 3:1-13 and serve as a warning for all of those who lead others to faith in Christ, disciple them, and teach them the Word of God. The questions posed were: Who are you (are you tempted to think of yourself higher or lower than you ought)? What do you want (does it align ...
May 14, 2021•31 min•Ep. 167
It’s fair to say we’re coming out of a hard year. Everything we’ve done for the past 12 months has taken more effort and resulted in less productivity. Perhaps we would’ve been better prepared if we’d all read a book Alex Harris wrote with his brother Brett a dozen years ago called Do Hard Things . In it, Alex and Brett proposed that doing hard things prepares you to do even harder things. You should get up early, they said. Step out of your comfort zone. Do more than what’s required. Find a cau...
May 06, 2021•33 min•Ep. 166
Malachi Tresler led a breakout session at TGC’s 2019 Arizona Regional Conference titled, “The Impact of Revivalism on Contemporary Worship.” He taught from the thesis that revivalism has affected modern worship in two ways: pragmatism and emotionalism. Beginning with the Great Awakening in 1734, Tresler walked through a brief history of the birth of revivalism and how it shaped worship over the years, including how worship services are designed, their expected outcomes, and even our expectations...
Apr 30, 2021•43 min•Ep. 165
Ray Ortlund led a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana titled, “Pastor, You and Your Church Can Get Healthy Again.” Framing the conversation according to Paul’s affirmation of the church in Colossians 2:5, he addressed the issue of church health according to one indicator that combined good order and firmness of faith. When held together in tandem, the combination of those two seemingly dichotomous glories, Ortlund posited, reveals a church...
Apr 23, 2021•45 min•Ep. 164
The Gospel Coalition hosted a panel discussion at the 2018 Women’s Conference with Colleen McFadden, Jen Wilkin, Courtney Doctor, and Danielle Anderson titled “Shaping Women’s Ministry in the Local Church: A Practical Discussion.” They defined and framed women’s ministry as holistic, in order to address all the needs of each woman—heart, soul, mind, and strength. Throughout the ensuing conversation, they touched on the very practical considerations necessary for building a healthy women’s minist...
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 163
David Platt delivered a message at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana titled “Paralysis and Forgiveness.” Expounding on the story of the paralyzed man brought to Jesus on a mat by his friends in Mark 2:1-12, Platt drew out the central theme of the book and the parable—the primacy and power of Jesus’s Word. Platt also highlighted the two urgent needs of the paralytic—physical and spiritual—and the attributes of Jesus by which he was able to minister to both. ...
Apr 09, 2021•49 min•Ep. 162
“If it costs me my life, to deny you, you possession-loving self, you praise-loving self . . . I'll die gladly to be with Jesus forever.” – John Piper John Piper delivered a message at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference titled “Unashamed to Be Scorned with Jesus.” Expounding on Mark 8:31-38, Piper clearly laid out the gospel—that Christ suffered, was rejected, killed, and rose again, and the Father planned, prophesied, and performed it. As a response, Piper challenged listeners to f...
Apr 02, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 161
Mindy Belz taught a workshop during the The Gospel Coalition 2018 Women’s Conference titled “The Wilderness Experiences: How God’s Suffering People in Faraway Lands Can Teach Us in the West.” Recounting her own experiences as a journalist and the deep oppression she witnessed toward religious people—Christians, in particular—around the world, she addressed the systems and situations that have led to such oppression and continue to drive it now. She also offered lessons she learned from the perse...
Mar 28, 2021•38 min•Ep. 160
The Gospel Coalition hosted a workshop during the 2018 Women’s Conference titled “University and Beyond: Discipling Students for a Lifetime with Christ” with Aimee Joseph, Kori Porter, Danielle Sallade, and Shar Walker. The panel discussed the importance of intentional discipleship that prepares college students to follow Christ long after their university days are behind them. They addressed key elements of discipleship, teaching versus sharing, content and context of relational discipleship, b...
Mar 21, 2021•57 min•Ep. 159
Kevin DeYoung delivered a message at TGC’s 2019 Southwest Clarus Conference titled “Laodicea,” drawing from Revelation 3:14-22. Closing out a series on Jesus’s words to the seven churches, DeYoung addressed the spiritual apathy of the church in Laodicea as the worst of the seven, and pointed out that the most comfortable and prosperous church of the seven was, in Jesus’s estimation, the one who had gotten things wrong the most—they were a stale, stagnant, smelly church. To those who said, “We ar...
Mar 14, 2021•45 min•Ep. 158
Expounding on Mark 10:28-30, and in response to a question he received in regard to how Jesus views homosexuality, Sam Allberry spoke to how the gospel addresses people in committed homosexual relationships. First, he said, Jesus assumes people will leave things to follow him. Second, Jesus assumes the most costly things to leave will be familial and relational. But Jesus also says that however much a person might leave, it will absolutely be worth it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. S...
Mar 07, 2021•24 min•Ep. 157
