Piper on Sleep

John Piper on Sleep:

Sleep is good and absolutely needful. But let us find the amount we need to function fully for God and take no more. Why? Because Paul said in Ephesians 5:15f, "Look carefully then how you walk, no as unwise men but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Time is precious because the stakes are so high in an evil age. Let us beware of frittering away precious hours in fruitless dawdling and excessive sleep.

I remember the story of a German New Testament professor who was asked why he rose so early and worked so hard. He answered: "Ich spare den Schlaf fuer die ewige Ruhe!" ("I am saving sleep for the eternal rest.") Of course this can be abused so that you kill yourself with heart failure or turn yourself into a first class grouch. But perhaps the time has come to sound Paul's trumpet again from 2 Corinthians 11:27, "... in toil and hardship, in hunger and thirst, through many a sleepless night..."
Let us take heed to ourselves and to our appetite for sleep, redeeming the time for the days are evil.

Read the full-text of his sermon from where the quote above is taken here.

John Piper Interviewed

John Piper was recently interviewed by CJ Mahaney on various things that don't transpire from his sermons. Here is a snapshot:

Thanks for your time, John! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?

I get up two mornings at 5:15, four mornings at 6:15 and one morning at 6:00.

I set aside one hour for prayer and Bible reading using the Discipleship Journal read through the Bible reading plan. That puts me now (February 2009) in Exodus, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts. On the five free days when there are no assignments I focus on memorization.

What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?

Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students; Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers; John Stott, Between Two Worlds; Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.

Read the full interview here.

Piper on Christ and Christian Sacrifice

An excellent 'sermon jam' from John Piper's keynote at the 2008 Together for the Gospel Conference entitled How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice.

If you want to hear the whole sermon (it's worth doing, I did. Twice so far), you can find it here.

Keller, Carson, & Piper

If you are a Gen-Xer like me, you would remember the jaw-dropping experience of watching Superman, Batman, and Flash Gordon engaged the bad guys together. These super heroes rock; standing out among the rest of the Justice League members. For me, watching Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, and John Piper together in an extended dialogue reminded me of these super heroes. Individually they had a tremendous role in the resurgence of the reformed theology in the US and the wider developed world.

Obviously I don't idolize Keller, Carson, and Piper. And that is the last thing they would expect from people like me or anyone for that matter. But no doubt they had a huge indirect impact on my journey of faith. Thanks to JT for the links to these Facebook videos from the 2008 Leadership meeting of the Gospel Coalition.

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Part 2 of 6
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Part 6 of 6

Vintage Piper!

Test yourself: Football or Christ? (3:32)


How does one make a world wide difference in the world? (7:56)


Why is there evil in the world? (3:32)


Don't waste your life (9:21)