How to use (& how not to use) sermon podcasts

I love listening to sermons on-line. Some preachers to whose sermons I listen are Vaughan Roberts (http://www.stebbes.org.uk/), Tim Keller (http://www.redeemer.com) and John Piper (http://www.desiringgod.org/.) I am grateful for the volunteers who post my sermons on this website. I know they don’t compare with the messages preached by those guys, but I hope that they are helpful to somebody.

I think that there are right ways and wrong ways to use sermon podcasts (or sermon CDs, radio preachers, etc.) The right way is to listen to God’s Word as it is proclaimed electronically in order to supplement your weekly spiritual disciplines with the view to growing in your faith in the Lord. The wrong way is to use sermon recordings as a substitute for going to church.

This is more common than you may think. Gathering with a specific group of believers on a continued basis involves many complications and inconveniences. A lot of people feel it is easier just to stay home and watch a preacher on TV or to download a sermon on-line.

I could write a long article about why this is not a good idea, but if I do you probably won’t read all the way to the end. (I know I wouldn’t.) So let me just give one good reason why it’s wrong to listen to a sermon podcast as a substitute for attending church. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” So, if I am able to go to church but choose to stay home and listen to recorded sermons, then I may be listening to God’s Word, but I’m not obeying it. That’s never a good idea.