Someone asked a bunch of Christians once to name ten sermons which had affected their lives, and then ten people who had affected their lives. Most of them found it far easier to name the people who had affected them. We're all supposed to be driven by the examples that we see around us.
But this is not to deny the strength and power of teaching. I can honestly say that my life has been transformed by some of the teaching I have received. I'm going to try to keep this list updated throughout my life with all the sermons that have affected me, but for now they're all sermons by one preacher, Simon Ponsonby. Here are the sermons that have affected my life.
| We Can Work It Out | MP3 | This is all about comfort in difficult times. There will be difficult times, and you will need comfort. So you need to hear this sermon if nothing else. One of the few sermons in my church to get a standing ovation. | "Sometimes, wonderfully and gloriously, through prayer, God sovereignly, in His eternal decree and freedom, breaks in and works a miracle - but He doesn't work them enough. And we say, 'God, I could do with a miracle right now.' He says, 'I'm here with you, but I'm not going to take you out of the situation or the situation out of you but I promise to be with you in it, because I've got to do something in your life.'" |
| 8 | MP3 | The role and place of persecution in the Church. | "What was this sermon called? 8. In the time it's taken me to preach this sermon, eight Christians have been martyred." |
| A Tale of Two Tents | MP3 | How we can have intimacy with God. | "And says that when Moses would go up, all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance to their tent. It's a tale of two tents - they're at their tent, God's at his tent. When I first read this - I've read it many times - God just underlined it for me about a year or so ago, and I just broke down crying. Because I felt I sensed something of God's heart, and He said, 'Why didn't they come? Why didn't they come?'" |
| More | MP3 Book | This is the sermon. This is both the Biblical basis for and the practical means for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. If you feel that your Christian life isn't everything it should be, then this is the sermon for you. | "There are too many Christians who have come out of Egypt but haven't gone into the promised land. There are too many Christians who know Romans chapter 5, talking about justification, but 6 and 7, this idea of death and union with Christ, they don't know about, so they've never entered Romans 8, and the Spirit crying within them 'Abba Father'. But they know justification... And I want to tell you there is more." |