In preparation for a post I intend to write next week, I’ve been listening to one of two John Piper sermons that have been quite foundational in my early formative faith/theology years (sophomore and junior year of high school). The sermons are from a Passion Conference, which was an annual college student conference focused around bringing students together toward a shared evangelistic and missional call (this is my own summary). I did not attend, but received the tapes from a leader in the youth group I was attending. The two Piper sermons resonated with me and I listened to them many times over the next several years. I’ve since lost my copies of the tapes and my search to recover audio from one of the two sermons has been futile. I do have the first sermon though, which I will link to below and ask that you try and find the time to listen to it before the weekend is over.

It’s a 40 minute sermon entitled: Did Christ Die For Us Or For God?

If you’ve listened or read much of John Piper’s theological stances, you might know some of what he talks about in the sermon. Maybe you’ll just need to skim it to get the main points. Anyways, my hope is that you’ll listen to it and provide your input and feedback in the comment section below. My hope is that regardless of how you feel about Piper, you’ll put that aside to simply listen to the sermon and converse with me about it.

I will be posting some of my thoughts and reflections next week, but I want to open up the discussion in hopes of bringing further thoughts out to help me reflect on it and what about this sermons I’ve found so shaping. Please, chime in with questions or comments.

(P.S. This is not an endorsement of John Piper or his theology. This is part of a series of posts of mine reflecting on those sermons, books, etc that were foundational in my early theology and my attempt to revisit those tenants. For better or worse, I credit Piper for impacting much of my foundational theology, I’ve also harshly criticized him on this blog.)