Thread by @jontparks

This Sunday past, John Piper turned up to church...and I was preaching.

(A thread for those interested)

1/ First, a bit of context:
I’m 35. I’m not the lead pastor of our church. On average I’ll preach 8-10 times a year. I’m not a seasoned preacher. I don’t have an impressive degree from a prestigious seminary. By all accounts, I’m a bit of a greenhorn preacher.

2/ On Fri, my bro informed me that our good friend, Steve, might be at our gathering on Sunday. Steve is brilliant; he’s an older brother, pastors a church in Liverpool, and someone I look up to dearly.

And I must confess, I immediately felt pretty nervous to preach before him.

3/ For 2 days I felt nervous about preaching in front of Steve. Every time I thought about it, I pictured Steve’s face.
And I hated that. I knew it was wrong. I asked God to take this away from me. Preaching isn’t a performance before men, right?

But the butterflies continued.

4/ Sunday rolls around and I go about my normal routine, albeit rather nervously this time. I turn up to my office at 8am, prep some PowerPoint, I’m going over my sermon notes, etc.

And that’s when my bro FaceTimes me.

5/ Btw my bro is our lead pastor and he’s FTing me from Spain bc he’s on sabbatical; one of the reasons I’m preaching.

He obviously has something important to tell me. He says, “I just wanted to give you a heads up that John and his wife are going to be there this morning.” 🤔

6/ A bit more context: we have a running joke in the office where anytime we need a guest speaker I’ll say straitfaced “we’ll just get John Piper to do it.” The joke is funny bc of its absurdity. It’s funny bc Piper (in my mind) is one of the greatest preachers of the last 50 yrs

7/ “I just wanted to give you a heads up that John and his wife are going to be there this morning.”

...

8/ In that split second of trying to figure out who exactly he’s talking about I recall an upcoming conference in Belfast that Piper is to speak at...I recall a friend of ours who used to work at Piper’s church and is still friends with John and his wife today...

9/ “John...who?”, I say.

He stares back with a “it’s happening” look in his face...

It’s like that moment in The Office where Michael is trying to tell Pam he’s dating her mum.

10/ I nearly fall over. Seriously.

Why me? Of all Sunday’s, why this one?

I forgot to mention I’ve been fighting a bad cold all week, we had a big volunteers party on Friday night, I had to clean up for hours on Saturday, I just finished my sermon Saturday evening.

Why, God?

11/ It suddenly becomes hilarious that I’ve been so nervous to preach in front of STEVE (no offence, Steve).

But hilarious for only a moment, because I HAVE TO PREACH IN FRONT OF JOHN PIPER!

12/ I quickly go over my notes. Am I SURE what I’m saying is biblical? Do I have any Piper quotes??

No. Good.

Wait, do I add one out of respect?!

13/ I’m freaking. Honestly, I’m shaking.

And then the texts start coming in.

“I’m praying for you.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“He’s just a guy, right?”

And the one that crushed me (and my fear):

14/ “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

15/ I went, fairly quickly, from “I can’t believe I’m so concerned that Steve will be here” to “I can’t believe I’m so concerned that John Piper will be here.”

Why?

Because I was reminded of the most incredible thing: “The LORD YOUR GOD IS IN YOUR MIDST.” Wow.

16/ My two takeaways:

Firstly, fellow pastors, don’t be so concerned with who is going to turn up to listen to you preach that you forget about the One who has always been there; the One who brought you there in the first place.

17/
2) how beautiful is Jesus’ church? Read 1 Cor 1 and Gal 3:28.

God’s choice of the foolish, weak, the low & despised in the world is both humbling and confidence-inspiring. We boast in nothing but Christ. There is no hierarchy in the church. We’ve all been given His Spirit.

End/ Is John Piper still a giant to me? Sure. But the body of Christ is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? That Jesus might use someone insignificant like me to encourage...well, anyone...that sounds like something only Jesus would do, doesn’t it?