John Piper Reads My Blog

Well, I know he read it at least once! Here’s what happened ten years ago today…

Do you have a “Holy Ambition”?

That is the question John Piper asks in his sermon, Holy Ambition: Paul’s and Yours, which he delivered on New Year’s Eve (2009), to a large group of college students in Minneapolis:

I probably wouldn’t have noticed this particular sermon at all were it not for an email I received that evening (actually, New Year’s morning in China) from one of Piper’s co-workers saying that Pastor John had just read one of my blog posts as an illustration in a sermon on missions he had just preached to a few thousand college students.

I had no idea why Pastor John would read one of my blog posts (or how he would’ve come across the blog post at all) until I actually listened to it myself. He explains a bit of the backstory, including how the particular post came into his hands (an email forwarded from his wife?).

In hindsight, I should’ve known something was up. Below is a Twitter message I received about a month before the sermon was streamed live. I remember reading the Direct Message in disbelief at the time, wondering how Piper had found me. And when I first watched the sermon, I didn’t immediately remember the tweet. It’s pretty obvious in hindsight, however, that John’s wife Noel came across my blog (she’s been a long-time China-watcher and researcher) and passed it on to John during his studies about a month before preaching the sermon. Hence the Tweet, and later the sermon(s).

Please watch or listen to the sermon above (or one of the two below) and be blessed by John Piper’s biblical clarity and conviction! 

Update: In the following few years, John preached a similar version of this message at least two more times, including the relevant blog post of mine. Here are the links:

Get a Holy Ambition — and Skip Adultolescence (Oct 22, 2011)

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/get-a-holy-ambition-and-skip-adultolescence 

(36:02-43:11)

Controlled by a Holy Ambition (Mar 22, 2012)

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/controlled-by-a-holy-ambition–2 

(31:55-36:40)