Throughout the history of the church one of the most important means of spiritual growth and development has come through the preaching of God’s Word. In the modern church, the primacy of preaching has often been maligned in favor of small groups and other community activities. But there can be no doubt that throughout the history of the church, preaching has been at the forefront of the church’s ministry. This fact excites me because never has there been such a massive library of preaching available to Christians as there is today. Free sermons on just about every Biblical passage, topic or doctrine are available literally at the click of a button. But sadly, most Christians are not make use of this incredible opportunity.
The other day, I was talking with one of the Sunday School teachers in our church. His class is not only growing numerically, but we have seen a number of his class members demonstrate tremendous spiritual growth over the past couple of years. So the other day, I asked him about what he was doing. Put simply, he has been giving his class a few links to sermons each week related to the passage of Scripture or topic that they study in Sunday School. Then in class, he asks them to share what God has been revealing to them through their reading, study and listening to the preaching of God’s Word. The results have been tremendous. Several marriages have been rescued or strengthened, and a few members recognized they had never been truly converted — others have made renewed spiritual commitments that are resulting in transformed lives — all because they listened to some free sermons recommended by their Sunday school teacher.
As a Pastor, I too have benefited from listening to free sermons. Every week I make it a practice to download a few sermons related to the passage or topic that I will be preaching about the next Sunday. Then throughout the week, I listen to them while working out or driving in my car. I found that this practice has helped to keep me focused on the Word and God has used these messages to help me find new applications for the sermon and ways to illustrate the message. Although there is no way to measure it, I truly believe that my spiritual life has grown as a result of this practice because I am spending more time thinking about how I personally need to be transformed by the message, not just how I am going to preach it on Sunday.
Getting started listening to free sermons is easy. Look up a few of your favorite preachers online or go to one of the many index sites and look for sermons on specific passages or topics that interest you. Then download them and listen to them. Not everything you will hear will be Biblical, so be sure to compare everything to Scripture. But overall you will start to grow by making free sermons a part of your spiritual discipline.
Dr. Joe Buchanan has been preaching for over twenty years. Currently, he serves as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Metropolis, IL and as Assistant Professor in the School of Religion at Liberty University.