Abraham Piper Introduces His Father

I think to some people who only know him through his writing and his preaching he can become a sort of sometimes a sort of disembodied idea machine and I just want to say a few things to show that to me he's very real I think I've seen a side of him that most people don't see in fact I'd venture to say that you don't really know a guy until he sat next to you at the breakfast table dripping with sweat because breakfast times always right after the morning jog and he would rather eat and take an immediate shower I know him as the man who would flip us in the air when we were babies and he did this to my brother one time in front of church I don't know if he was making an analogy or not and he'd swing us around on broomsticks when you're a little older I let off let go one time see how far I would fly and I broke my wrist I know him as the man who didn't take me to the doctor for four days because he and my mom said it was probably just sprained I know him as the man who take us to one pro baseball game a year and bring a book to [Applause] but it wasn't sports that bored him just just baseball I know him as the man who who in his sixties played pickup soccer with us in a parks empty wading pool and fought harder to win than any of us who are half his age I know him as the man who was disappointed with me when he caught me listening to rock and roll in secret when I was nine it was Christian but I don't think that mattered to him I'm not sure if I have history just right but I think in the 80s drums were still of the devil I know my dad is the man who taught me when I was little what the word grace means by saying that I deserved a spanking but he wasn't going to give me one this is an especially memorable lesson because it happened once he also had plenty to teach about justice I came home from school one time with a detention in the 6th grade and the teacher had scrawled on it that's the reason kicked another student I was surprised and pleased at how dismissively he was signing it when he asked by the way could you kick I answered Anna his pen stopped in his eyes flared red and he his nostrils began to smoke and he said you kicked a girl some things grow in memory like a fish that you caught a long time ago but I'm pretty sure that my recollection of that moment and the punishment that followed is not exaggerated at all I know John Piper is the man who's going to send me to a middle school that required you to know Latin so I had to take summer school to catch up and I was not happy with him to my great relief I overheard one of the teachers say that algebra is algebra and it doesn't matter whether you teach it to the glory of God or not I passed this juicy tidbit on to my day I know it was very pleased shortly thereafter when my time at that institution was cut short I won't say I don't know how to push his buttons hey I know John Piper is the man who sat next to me an understanding silence when I was 19 and having girl troubles at times like these I'm sure he would have preferred to tell me to get it together and stop being a screw-up but he never has I know as the man who sat with me at Devon E's pizza while I told him I wasn't really into the kind of girl I should probably marry and anyone who would marry me I probably shouldn't and his prophetic response was perhaps but what about Molly I know him as the kind of man who did not seem at all upset when I proposed to Molly five months sooner than he told me I ought to and I know him as the man who threw up his hands with a happy shout when Molly and I announced our surprise of a pregnancy five months after we were married and I know him as the man who was the first person I wanted and needed to call when we went into the hospital with her next baby and discovered that she didn't have a heartbeat in you anymore John Piper is a great man not because he has a big church or lots of people read his books or know who he is it's good he's a pastor good he's a scholar good he's an author but it's best for me at least that he's a father that he's my dad I admire him and I'm eager now to listen to him come and admire his own father [Applause]

Channel: Cahlen Brancheau

Views: 160,137

Rating: 4.8036628 out of 5

Keywords: Abraham Piper, John Piper, Piper, Desiring God, Father, Honor, Fundamentalist, Calvinist, Christ, Christian

Id: lqww88CpBHo

Length: 4min 53sec (293 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 31 2009