Dr. John Piper - A biography of David Brainerd

I have been thinking a lot today about what kind of sermons will be a part of this blog and I realize this task of picking a sermon for a day, especially this early on is crazy hard. So, I figured I am just going to focus on sermons that have a huge impact and let it land where it falls... (And worse come to worse, just pick a Piper sermon:)

Todays choice is more a biography than a sermon, but it is John Piper, so it is really a passionate, heart-wrenching sermon in every flavor of the word. This sermon is about a guy named David Brainerd. He was a Missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. Born in Connecticut in 1718, he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-nine in 1747. Jonathan Edwards preached the funeral sermon and published the diary which David had kept.

John Piper does this kind of oral biography every year for his conference, and though I have heard quite a few of these amazing talks (Judson, Calvin, etc.) this one just hit home in so many ways. David Brainerd, a man committed to reaching many for the gospel, suffered so greatly and though his worldly plans fell apart, God led through him a resurgence of the modern missionary movement.

What Piper writes about Brainerd should give him all the credibility he needs:

"Why has Brainerd's life made the impact that it has? One obvious reason is that Jonathan Edwards took the Diaries and published them as a Life of Brainerd in 1749. But why has this book never been out of print? Why did John Wesley say, "Let every preacher read carefully over the 'Life of Brainerd (p. 3)'"? Why was it written of Henry Martyn that "perusing the life of David Brainerd, his soul was filled with a holy emulation of that extraordinary man; and after deep consideration and fervent prayer, he was at length fixed in a resolution to imitate his example"? (see note 2) Why did William Carey regard Edwards' Life of Brainerd as a sacred text? Why did Robert Morrison and Robert McCheyne of Scotland and John Mills of America and Frederick Schwartz of Germany and David Livingston of England and Andrew Murray of South Africa and Jim Elliot of modern America look upon Brainerd with a kind of awe and draw power from him the way they and countless others did (p. 4)?

I encourage you to listen and be encouraged...

Click this link to listen to the sermon.
Click this link to read the sermon.