"Today is one of the best days of my seminary life." So wrote John Piper in his journal on Wednesday, March 24, 1971, during his final semester at Fuller Seminary.

On that Monday, March 22, "Dr. Schaper called me and asked me to speak in chapel today," he explained. "I agreed to and went straight to God, and all I did from that phone call until chapel this morning (except go to 2 classes) was pray, think, and write for the sermon I gave."

The team at Desiring God just recently came across this 40-year-old recording, and we now have made it available as the oldest Piper message on the site. This is one of the very first messages Pastor John preached. He graciously gave us permission to post it, but only "for historical reasons," as, he said, it is "the green preaching work of a 25 year old in his senior year at seminary."

Stream or download the message.