This weekend I thought I would share a list of my top Twenty Five videos ordered by total number of views. As you can see, one of my Chandler videos has already jumped in above Mark Driscoll in second place. Terry’s fantastic sermon on prayer is way ahead of that one even, however. I enjoyed filming or watching all of these videos. Why not watch one or two you have missed?

1		Elijah Prays For Rain Tue Jun 23, 2009
2		Matt Chandler on being a reformed charismatic without much of a seatbelt Thu May 13, 2010
3		Mark Driscoll and Adrian Warnock talk about the resurrection Mon Mar 29, 2010
4		Mark Driscoll and Adrian Warnock talk about Doctrine Tue Mar 30, 2010
5		1st Canon EOS 5D Mark II Video Wed Mar 25, 2009
6		Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything Thu Oct 22, 2009
7		A Call To Prayer For Matt Chandler Thu Dec 03, 2009
8		Keith Getty – Co-Writer of In Christ Alone Thu Apr 09, 2009
9		Stuart Townend Interview Tue Apr 07, 2009
10		Dare To Believe God For Miracles – Tope Koleoso Thu May 14, 2009
11		Nathan and Lou Fellingham of Phatfish Sun Apr 05, 2009
12		Elijah Prays Part Two Wed Jun 24, 2009
13		EOS 5D Mark II Testing Rode Videomic and iMovie Fri Mar 27, 2009
14		Interview With Liam Goligher Thu Apr 09, 2009
15		Wayne Grudem on Politics and the Christian Sat Apr 24, 2010
16		Richard Cunningham at New Word Alive Tue May 12, 2009
17		Matt Chandler Interview on London, Newfrontiers, and “Prayer and Fasting” Thu May 13, 2010
18		Interview with Vaughan Roberts Sat Apr 11, 2009
19		Sam Storms Interviews Adrian Warnock Wed Feb 03, 2010
20		Wayne Grudem on Atonement, Unity, Rick Warren and John Piper Thu May 06, 2010
21		Matt Chandler on the call to ministry Thu May 13, 2010
22		Sam Storms On Pastoring As A Reformed Charismatic Wed Feb 03, 2010
23		Sunrise Over Welsh Mountains Mon Apr 13, 2009
24		Wayne Grudem on whether God’s revelation has really stopped or not Sat May 08, 2010
25		Matt Chandler on why he IS friends with people on his staff Thu May 13, 2010

This interview focused on one question: How do you manage to write books that are over a thousand pages long? The answer was essentially the same way you read them: One page at a time! We also spoke about the ESV Study Bible that he edited. He argued that no single human being in a lifetime could have produced that book, since it contained specialty knowledge from 95 authors distilled down, in some cases from a lifetime of study.

Wayne Grudem on surviving as an author from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Over the course of this week, I will be sharing a five-part interview with Wayne Grudem. I hope you will enjoy this relaxed conversation we filmed at New Word Alive. I have already shared one part of this in our interview about Politics.

After the video there is a summary of a few of the questions we address in today’s interview:

Watch on Vimeo

Your book Systematic Theology has been summarized twice, from over 1000 pages to 500 then 100. If you had to summarize it in just a few sentences what would you say

Believe the Bible. Believe it. Obey it. Love it. And through it come to love God, trust him and obey him.

Why do you think that the Bible does not look a bit more like a Systematic Theology?

Because it is historical. It tells the story of God’s dealing with man from creation till the end times. But for learning about what the Bible says it is useful to organize the material into certain topics, asking the question “What does the Bible say to us about God, about salvation, etc?”

Would you agree that there are bits of the Bible that are harder to understand than others and therefore we should be more understanding of those who differ with us about certain doctrines than others.
Some things in Scripture are more difficult to understand than others. Young children can learn from the Bible, but scholars can learn from the same passage in more detail.

There are some topics that are very clearly described in the Bible repeatedly, such as for example the deity of Christ. On the other hands ome things are much more difficult for us to understand in detail and gain consensus on. There are some things the Bible teaches that conflict more with our natural understanding of how the world works. For example the doctrine of predestination is not something we would think of on our own. So people progressively comet o accept and believe such doctrines as they read scripture more.

Quite simply, you absolutely have to watch this. Chandler is in the UK this week, and will be addressing the Newfrontiers prayer and fasting event, a 300 leaders gathering, and next Sunday will be preaching at Jubilee Church.  Try and come to hear him live if you possibly can. But please do watch this, and ask yourself, am I preparing myself and those dear to me for suffering?

Watch on vimeo

Watch on Vimeo (works on iPhone or iPad)

This video says it all. And as a direct result, I bought myself an iPad on a business trip to the Newark area this week!

It was announced yesterday that from May 1 to December 31 John Piper will be taking a step back from his ministry for a prolonged period to refocus his priorities. I respect and admire the humility, honesty, and commitment this represents. No one, not even Piper, is indispensable to God’s mission. But every husband is irreplaceable to his wife. This was also well explained in the second half of yesterday’s sermon, the video of which is below. I recommend you watch the whole video as this is a vintage Piper sermon at the beginning, and as he gets personal, he sets us a commendable example.

Please pray for John and Noel. Also, please pray for other leaders, both in your local church and on a public stage.

Here is an extract of what Piper has said about this in a blog post:

I asked the elders to consider this leave because of a growing sense that my soul, my marriage, my family, and my ministry-pattern need a reality check from the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, I love my Lord, my wife, my five children and their families first and foremost; and I love my work of preaching and writing and leading Bethlehem. I hope the Lord gives me at least five more years as the pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem.

But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I’ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins.

Noël and I are rock solid in our commitment to each other, and there is no whiff of unfaithfulness on either side. But, as I told the elders, “rock solid” is not always an emotionally satisfying metaphor, especially to a woman. A rock is not the best image of a woman’s tender companion. In other words, the precious garden of my home needs tending. I want to say to Noël that she is precious to me in a way that, at this point in our 41-year pilgrimage, can be said best by stepping back for a season from virtually all public commitments.

via John Piper’s Upcoming Leave :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library.

Raised With Christ was launched at Jubilee Church this past Sunday. The people were incredibly gracious in their response, and much to my surprise we sold all 100 available copies in just 10 minutes. I am sure some of that was due to the love of this wonderful family of God for me as one of its members.  But Tope’s endorsement of the book was really very nicely done. If you are a pastor with a specific book to promote, you would do well to follow this example.

In the video my lovely wife makes a rare, but very welcome, appearance in front of the camera.   It will represent the last post for a while on this blog about my book. If you are interested in following information about the book and reaction to it, then headlines from the Raised With Christ site will continue to appear in the sidebar here, on my Twitter feed, and on Facebook.

Watch on vimeo

Today I continue my interview with Sam Storms. I allowed him to turn the tables on me and interview me about the resurrection. He makes a great interviewer, I think:

Chandler has made a clear decision to deal with his cancer in public rather than in private. This means allowing the church he leads and others to see what God is doing through his experience.  This week he has started a video blog which will be shared each week at The Village Church blog.

My final sermon of the year was preached at Jubilee Church, London. You can download audio and video or watch it here:

download audio

Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

Speaking about joy—Season of goodwill is upon us—“Happy Christmas” we say, but it can be a stressful and sorrowful time for many.

An epidemic of depression. Some biological, but much caused by wrong thinking and difficult relationships.

Everybody wants to be happy—even the person who kills himself.

Where can we find joy? IN THE LORD is the simple answer.

Alt title: How to have fun and follow Jesus.

Subject that I come to in some trepidation. One of my heroes speaks of God stopping him before he could speak on joy:

“I was at Romans 14:17. I had dealt with ‘righteousness’, with ‘peace’ on March 1st, and there I was stopped. I was not allowed to deal with ‘joy in the Holy Ghost’. I have the feeling that this was not accidental. God intervened and I could suggest a reason why. I was able to deal with righteousness and peace (I had fleeting experiences of it), but the third thing is the profoundest of all. Why was I not allowed to deal with it? Because I knew something, but not enough about it. ‘I want you to speak with greater authority on this,’ God said . . .

Here is what I would put before you. For six months, until September, I did not preach at all. For four months I have had the most valuable experience of being a listener. My general impression is that most of our services are terribly depressing! I am amazed people still go to church; most who go are female and over the age of forty. The note missing is ‘joy in the Holy Ghost’. There is nothing in these services to make a stranger feel that he is missing something by not being there.” READ MORE

(For more information about Lloyd-Jones, see John Piper’s brief biography and assessment of him)
How should we respond? HAS been progress, BUT, do we truly live in the good of 1 Peter 1:8 when it refers to, “joy unspeakable and full of glory” ?

Joy seen at football matches, and concerts, e.g. X-factor / American Idol.

Church should be the happiest place on earth. I am convinced that if we continue to let the Holy Spirit have free reign in our meetings, then real joy and a sense of the presence of God, will be the result.

Christians are not meant to be of all people the most miserable!

We should be the most happy!

Not true that “the more miserable=more holy!!!” Christianity and joyless churches are contradictions” p39 Henry Tyler’s Jump For Joy

So, the Bible gives us PERMISSION to be full of joy, as Christians, but more than that, it COMMANDS us to be full of joy.

Don’t hide behind temperament—those who tend to be positive beware against flippancy and riding roughshod over others. For those who tend to be pessimists; you need to loosen up and receive joy! (That’s easier said than done! Just “telling” them to loosen up isn’t really of much help. You need to tell them HOW to loosen up.)

What is joy = similar to happiness in some ways. Partly the absence of things to make us sad: George “I happy now” when sick. But more than that the presence of something positive. (You may know what you mean here, but I don’t.)

Tomorrow I will begin to share the 11 points I spoke about.

Mark Driscoll told Angela’s story in a recent sermon. You can watch the video below. I guarantee it will move you. May her life preach to thousands she will never meet. When life really gets tough, more than at any other time, Christians can demonstrate to the world that it really IS all about Jesus. Read more on the Mars Hill Blog.

PJ Smyth Interview from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

At TOAM I interviewed PJ about his perspective of the conference, and his concerns that Newfrontiers must not become “domesticated”.

Behind The Scenes At TOAM With My Lovely Wife from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

I thought I would let you have a glimpse of a behind the scenes moment. This year at the Brighton Conference, I had the most good-looking assistant I have ever had helping me. Consider this video something of a tribute to her. It was a real joy having her there with me!

This was posted on the Jubilee News/Blog site yesterday:

The embedded video teaches a simple lesson
The internet is a curse and also a blessing

The individual now has a voice;
No longer just the “big boys”

You can complain from your room;
and even bring others doom.

May the Christian never forget;
the internet is a huge asset,

Not to hurt innocent people,
But to propagate the gospel

Tope

This video is an interview with Dave Devenish On Newfrontiers Missionary Work. We in Newfrontiers are convinced Church planting is the best way to fulfill the Great Commission. Newfrontiers is taking this seriously all over the world. In this interview Dave Devenish explains what is happening in the parts of the world he has been working in.

The conference may be over, but its reverberations will be felt for months and years to come. This year they already have videos available to view online of the main sessions, and both main sessions and training tracks are available as MP3s.

My gorgeous wife has developed some more of her amazing photos from the event. These are available together with all the photos on flickr or to view as a slideshow here:

The last two April’s I have attended New Word Alive 09 and New Word Alive 08, I have enjoyed both weeks, and there is much you can read about on my blog from those times.

The New Word Alive Media has now made the audio available online. Hugh Palmer’s interview of Don Carson is particularly worthy of a listen, but you can get a whole lot of other talks.

Information is also available already about next year (bookings open later this month) and there is a professionally done promotional video on that site you can watch. If you want to get a flavor of New Word Alive some of my less professional video much of which is taken at the event is available below:

Over the next few days I will be serialising a lightly edited transcript of the sermon I preached last Sunday on the Holy Spirit’s activity within the Church today. I appreciate this is a subject that many people have questions on, so I have opened up a discussion thread on Facebook and The Gospel Coalition Network for us to discuss these issues. Feel free to also submit questions or comments via a Twitter comment @adrianwarnock.

You can download the audio or watch the sermon right here:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed,” and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts. but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activity, but it is the same God who empowers them all in every one. . .All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he will. 1 Corinthians 12

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are present with us this morning. Thank you for being here in our worship. Now we ask you—come inhabit the preaching of your Word that this message will be helpful to us, it will be instructive to us, it will be inspiring to us, and it will result in a fresh release of these wonderful gifts of Holy Spirit among us, we pray. Amen.

For the last few months at Jubilee Church, we’ve been looking at the book of 1 Corinthians, and the title of that series has been “Authentic Christianity.” This morning, we’re looking at one more aspect of what defines “authentic” Christianity, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Activity of the Holy Spirit

The Spirit is here on earth because Jesus isn’t physically here anymore. Jesus promised that when he went away, he would send the Holy Spirit. In John 7:37-39 we are told that Jesus stood up at a great feast and shouted out the following: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John then explains, “Now this Jesus said about the Spirit whom those who believe in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 15:45, that the last Adam, which is a name for Jesus, became a life-giving Spirit. Something very special happened to Jesus as he rose from the dead and was ascended on high. He received power. There was an energizing of his body, if you like, as it lay in the tomb, and as he came back to life. He became a life-giving spirit. What does that mean? It means that right here, right now, today, on the A10 in Enfield, in the cinema here in Enfield, the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is available to you and me. The same power that re-animated a body that had been crucified and that had laid in that cold tomb for three whole days, that brought that body back to life, that same power. And it’s not just a power—it’s the person; he’s here in this room. He is that presence that we may have been aware of. Maybe as you came and you visited (you may not even be a Christian here this morning), but you’ve sensed a presence in this room. You’ve sensed a person is here. It’s that person who we worship. It’s the person of Jesus, but he’s made manifest through his Holy Spirit. He’s here by the Spirit. The Spirit’s job is to reveal Jesus to us, and to reveal the Father to us. He’s here.

Jesus said to his disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you” (Acts 1:8). And then we see the fall of the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire come, and they stand speaking in other languages that they’ve never heard—the gift of tongues. We see the crowds wondering, saying, “What is this? What is going on?” Peter says, “This is what was spoken by the prophet, Joel” (Acts 2:16).

The prophet Joel promised a time when the Holy Spirit would be made available for everybody (Joel 2:28-29). He promised a time where it would no longer be, as it was in the Old Testament, that there were just one or two prophets, one or two special people who experienced direct communication with God. We were made to know God. We were designed to have a relationship with him. Adam and Eve had a relationship with God. God walked with them in the Garden, but sin broke that relationship. And by God’s grace he continually chose individual prophets in the Old Testament, and he would reveal himself to them. He would speak with them, some of them even face-to-face. And it was Jesus who would walk with them and talk with them and would explain things to them, but it was only a few of them that ever experienced that. Why? Because you cannot see God and live if you are a sinner. But because of Jesus’ death, because of his resurrection, a way was made open for all of God’s people to prophesy as it says in Joel. For all of God’s people to see visions, to dream dreams, to hear from God, to know God for themselves. It’s a wonderful promise. And it was fulfilled in Acts. Peter explained this as follows in Acts 2:32-33: “Look, this Jesus, God raised up, and of that we were witnesses.” (So they had seen Jesus. They had touched him. They ate with him since he had come back to life.) “. . . being therefore exalted on the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Jesus) had poured out that which you see and hear.”

There is an interesting verse buried in Galatians 3 that we often miss. You don’t need to turn to it; you might want to go look at it afterwards. Paul talks about Jesus’ death on the cross, and then he says that he died so that “we might receive the promised Spirit” (Galatians 3:14). So Jesus’ death and resurrection had a goal in mind. We tend to think that the goal is heaven, and that’s right, but the goal for us today is actually a foretaste of heaven on earth, and that’s what the Holy Spirit is. Ephesians 1 puts it this way—the Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance. So we know we’re going to heaven because we have faith, but we know we going to heaven also even more strongly than that because of the Holy Spirit poured out on us. One of his key roles is to make us certain that we’re going to heaven.

Now, if someone says to me, “Adrian, I want to buy your house [which is unlikely at the moment, not least because it’s not on the market!] and they said I want to put a deposit down, they have to actually give me the deposit. Some people think that we just receive the Holy Spirit automatically, and that all Christians somehow have the Holy Spirit, and of course it’s true that you cannot be a Christian unless the Holy Spirit is working in you, producing faith in you, but there’s also available an awareness of the Holy Spirit’s activity, and unless we are truly aware of the Holy Spirit, it’s impossible to see how he can really be a deposit. I need to be able to phone up my bank and say, “Okay, he says he’s given me the deposit. Is the money in my bank account?” And, I suppose the bank manager could even lie, so, in some ways, the only way for me to really know is to go and pull the money out of my account and hold it in my hand, see it, feel it, touch it, maybe even smell it.

We know when we’ve got a deposit. We must understand and underline that— whatever else the Holy Spirit is in a believer’s life, the goal is for us to receive him, to know that we’ve received him, to experience him, to be aware of him, and to enter into this personal relationship with God, which can sound a bit weird in the modern world, but it is something that many of us in this room will testify—we know Jesus! There’s an old song—how do we know Jesus? He lives within our heart. That could sound a little bit trite, but actually it’s the reality. I KNOW that my Redeemer lives! Amen? Because I know God through him.

To be continued…

I have known Lex for approximately twenty years. His passion for Jesus is, if anything, more infectious now than when I first met him. Spending this twenty minutes or so with him left me wanting to tell more people about Jesus. I suspect that if you pour yourself a coffee, pull up a chair, and join us, you will feel the same.

We spent some time together speaking about how he came to be an evangelist who travels to many countries sharing the good news alongside local churches. He said that his involvement with Jubilee Church Cape Town for many years (he is one of the elders there) has been vital for his ministry. Lex has a blog which focuses on church history. He is passionate about bringing reformed theology, a respect for the great events of church history, and a love for the unchanging gospel of the Bible together with evangelistic zeal, faith, and an expectation of the miraculous presence of Jesus. It’s a great recipe, in my opinion!

Lex Loizides — Interview With A Church-Based Evangelist from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

This is a collection of short interviews I did with people who attended and served at the recent New Word Alive event. Unfortunately, I was still only learning how to use the camera, so it is also a study in how “not” to use the camera! I have shadows in the wrong place, I focus on a bottle instead of the person, and there are a bunch of other mistakes. But despite all of that, the enthusiasm of people about this great conference is obvious.

New Word Alive Reports from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo