Taking God At His Word with Kevin DeYoung

In his book launch event Kevin DeYoung said that the most pressing need for evangelical Christians is to regain a conviction about the sufficiency of Scripture.  And I couldn’t agree more.  Kevin has recently released a book that many evangelicals are giving enthusiastic support to.  It’s called “Taking God at His Word.”   Westminster Theological Seminary was involved with a book launch event where G.K. Beale, David Powlison and Carl Trueman spoke and conversed with Kevin about his book.  The audio and video is available.

This is one of the most important books to be published for our generation which has an unhealthy fixation on “hearing the voice of God” from people who have trips to heaven or imagine God is writing them personal letters — all at the expense of where God is clearly and powerfully speaking: through the living and active Word of God.  If you listen to only one address, listen to Kevin’s opening address. I encourage you to buy this book that is relatively short, easy to read, and powerful.

Kevin delivered an 11-part sermon series on the doctrine of Scripture at his church, which formed the basis for this book.

DeYoung’s 1st Address

It can be found at the link below, as this particular video is, for some reason, unable to be linked.

Find Deyoung’s First Address here >>>

Conversation #1

Conversation #2

DeYoung’s 2nd Address

Book Launch Event >>>

Doctrine of Scripture in 11 sermons >>>

Powlison: God’s Grace and Your Suffering

I have gained tremendous respect for David Powlison over the years. He seems to be one of the few level headed Biblical counselors among a confusing lot.  In this message he talks about a very challenging subject that we all have, or will, face in our lives, either ourselves, or in counseling others: Our suffering and God’s grace.

God’s Grace and Your Suffering >>>

A Narrated Bibliography with David Powlison

C. J. Mahaney talks with David Powlison about his books.  Powlison is a teacher and counselor at the Christian Counseling & Education Foundation, is the editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling, and is contributing  a very significant body of literature to help Christians deal biblically with the stuff of life’s trenches.  He has written two books, Seeing with New Eyes and Speaking Truth in Love.

David sees the secular culture having taken counseling and the direct dealing of life’s issues out of the churches hands.  His purpose is to bring biblical answers to life’s trials and difficulties, and to give tools the church to help Christian’s think biblically when it comes to counseling.

This is a very helpful interview, and will give you a biblical perspective of this subject that is so loaded with dangers and misuse.

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds has a helpful post and bibliography of articles by Powlison.

A Narrated Bibliography >>>

Five Minutes with David Powlison

C. J. Mahaney has put together a series of 5 to 7 minute interviews with David Powlison about a variety of subjects.   C. J. reads his favorite quotes of what Powlison has written and asks him to elaborate on them.

Good Advice vs. Good News >>>

Cravings & Conflicts >>>

What is Real vs. What I Feel >>>

The Value of Human Emotion >>>

Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference 2007

Sovereign Grace Ministries is somewhat of an anomaly in the church today, and I mean that in a good sense. We live in a day where we are seeing denominations shrink, but Sovereign Grace Ministries is planting healthy, growing churches based on solid reformed teaching. They are also heavily involved in writing new, theologically sound, worship music. God is doing amazing work through this organization. So, when they put on a leadership conference, I want to know about it. All three general session speakers, Sproul, Powlison, and Mahaney, delivered messages you will want to hear.

R. C. Sproul opened the general sessions. C. J. Mahaney was correct when he said nobody can preach about the holiness of God like R. C. Sproul. If you’ve never heard Sproul preach on the holiness of God, you’re in for a treat.

David Powlison brought a message that has been deeply embedded in his mind of late. He confronted the unfortunate tendency within the church to follow the culture in it’s unhealthy habit of introspection. Powlison argues that our introspection should be short lived and our focus on God and Scripture should be more weighty. The message he brought was like a lightning bolt to our age. If you only buy one MP3 from this conference it must be Powlison’s message.

C. J. Mahaney’s message title ‘Trinitarian Pastoral Ministry’ might be somewhat misleading, but his lecture was timely and needed. I won’t go over the spine of his message, but will cover two important points he raised. First, he brought much needed clarity to the ‘charismatic’ issue, and offering a clarifying term for his position which he calls ‘continuationism’ (as opposed to cessationism). He also called for the church to stop trying to redefine itself to be ‘relevant’ to the culture. He calls for churches to recover lost ground in the face of post-modern church thinking.

When you order the conference, order the whole conference, general sessions and seminars. The full package is only $4.oo more and there are some excellent seminars. Powlison returns of a seminar. Other seminar speakers include Mark Dever, Joshua Harris, and Mike Bullmore. For the ladies, Carolyn Mahaney brings a message titled ‘Watch your Man’ and then is part of a panel discussion.

The conference consists of 4 General Sessions and 16 Seminars.

Full MP3 CD set ($24) >>>

General Sessions MP3 download ($8) >>>

Seminars MP3 download ($16) >>>

Sovereign Grace 2007 Leadership Conference

R. C. Sproul, C. J. Mahaney and David Powlison gathered in Gaithersburg, Maryland in April to deliver this conference, which is now available for download.  The price for all 4 general sessions is a steal at $8.00.  I will be updating this post as I have time to listen to them.

The General Sessions this year are:

“In the Last Analysis…” Look Out for Introspection, by David Powlison
The Holiness of Christ, by R.C. Sproul
The Holiness of God, by R. C. Sproul
Trinitarian Pastoral Ministry, by C.J. Mahaney

Order General Sessions on MP3 at Sovereign Grace Store >>>