Reflections on the Seashells Sermon, 18 Years Later
00:00:00.000 | Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot
00:00:06.160 | trawler, play softball, and collect shells.
00:00:13.440 | That's a tragedy. Oh my, that is a classic clip from an unforgettable sermon preached
00:00:21.640 | 18 years ago today on May 20th, 2000 in Memphis, Tennessee. Pastor John, I know
00:00:27.960 | you'll never forget that moment. You were preaching outside to about 40,000
00:00:32.320 | college students at the Fourth Passion Conference, which was then called One Day.
00:00:36.240 | It became, of course, one of your most influential sermons. There you introduced
00:00:41.000 | us to the world of Bob and Penny and their seashell collection, and then you
00:00:46.200 | pleaded with the students, "Don't waste your life." And that plea, of course, would
00:00:51.360 | become the title of your book, released in 2003, which has since become a
00:00:56.240 | best-selling book that has now sold over 650,000 copies and has really become a
00:01:01.760 | staple graduation gift handed out to thousands of high school and college
00:01:05.640 | graduates. You know, reflecting back 18 years to that message in Memphis, what do
00:01:12.000 | you remember from One Day 2000? Did the message seem particularly different to
00:01:17.000 | you? What was your experience of it? What has surprised you about the message now
00:01:22.200 | looking back on it? And if I can fit one more question into this episode, I
00:01:26.800 | mean, when you think of "Don't waste your life," it's so different from your other
00:01:29.960 | books. How do you think of it in the corpus of your other writings?
00:01:33.360 | Whoa, that's a lot of questions. As I've been thinking about these questions,
00:01:42.080 | here's what has come to my mind, and so I'll address some of them, maybe not all
00:01:46.920 | of them. I've been thinking about some ironies of the book and that day, and
00:01:53.720 | so let me talk about several of these ironies that might get at some of
00:01:59.720 | what you're asking. Number one, I think this is the only book where Bob Dylan
00:02:06.160 | figures in, in a pretty early significant way. And my point back in 2003 was that
00:02:13.840 | his song, "The Answer My Friend Is Blowing In The Wind," really did say "the
00:02:21.120 | answer." It didn't say "an answer," it didn't say "lots of answers," it didn't say
00:02:26.280 | "possible answers." It said "the answer." "The answer is blowing in the wind." Now,
00:02:34.480 | today, 50 years later, how ironic is it that the help that John Piper got from
00:02:46.120 | believing that there was "the answer" blowing in the wind that I desperately
00:02:51.240 | wanted to find for the meaning of my life so that I wouldn't waste my life. I
00:02:55.800 | wanted "the answer," not five possible answers or not dreamy answers. I wanted
00:03:01.240 | "real," "the real answer." How ironic is it that 50 years later, Bob Dylan wins the
00:03:11.040 | Nobel Prize for literature in 2016 and says in his acceptance speech, which I
00:03:20.680 | listened to and read twice to make sure I heard it, sadly, was, "So what does it all
00:03:29.120 | mean?" You know, looking back over the corpus of his works, "What does it all
00:03:32.400 | mean?" And then he answered like this, direct quote, "My songs can mean a lot of
00:03:39.200 | things, a lot of different things. If the song moves you, that's all that's
00:03:44.600 | important. I don't have to know what all this means, and I'm not gonna worry about
00:03:50.120 | it, what it all means." My heart absolutely sank. That's exactly the opposite of what
00:03:56.920 | I wrote my book about. It doesn't matter what it all means. You can just let your
00:04:03.280 | life mean anything. A thousand ways to waste your life. I don't want to
00:04:09.160 | come to the end of my life or my readers to come to the end of their lives and
00:04:15.160 | say, "Well, it doesn't really matter what it all means, wasted or not wasted. It
00:04:21.360 | doesn't really matter. What matters is how you feel about my songs or about my
00:04:25.800 | book." A tragic thing for a 76-year-old human being to say getting ready to
00:04:32.240 | meet the living God. I wrote "Don't Waste Your Life" to take people in exactly the
00:04:39.840 | opposite direction. How not to come to the end of your life and say like that
00:04:45.360 | old man did sitting on the front pew in my father's evangelistic crusade after he
00:04:50.520 | had pled with him to receive Christ, put his face in his hands and said as an old
00:04:56.160 | man, "I've wasted it. I've wasted it." I can remember my dad telling that story over
00:05:02.580 | and over and everything in me as a kid. I don't want that to happen to me. I do not
00:05:07.840 | want that to happen to me. Now here's another irony. That sermon 18
00:05:15.200 | years ago on that big field in Memphis to those thousands of students was
00:05:22.280 | really an exposition and an application of Galatians 6.14. And the irony is that
00:05:29.280 | hardly anybody knows that. I think. I mean, if you ask people, "What do you
00:05:35.680 | remember from the sermon?" They say, "Shell collecting." And what struck
00:05:42.040 | people was the certain illustrations that I used, and I'm not sure how many
00:05:48.760 | people who were deeply moved by this sermon could remember that this
00:05:55.560 | was an exposition of these words, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross
00:06:02.120 | of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to
00:06:08.480 | the world." And I remember leading up to this sermon thinking, "I just want to know
00:06:12.880 | what that means." So I can tell these students what that means, because Paul is
00:06:17.920 | saying, "Don't boast in anything except the cross." And I thought, "Are you kidding me?"
00:06:25.320 | I mean, Paul himself boasts in other things besides the cross, doesn't he? He
00:06:32.000 | boasts in his converts, he boasts in sufferings, that word "boast" or "exalt," he
00:06:38.480 | uses all over the place for other things beside the cross, it seems. And so I
00:06:46.080 | worked and worked and worked to try to figure out what does he mean.
00:06:51.560 | And here's what I argued, which is what nobody remembers, it seems like. I argued,
00:06:57.600 | as hell-bound, God-belittling sinners, none of us deserves one good thing from
00:07:07.000 | God. Not one. Not one millisecond of good health or anything else. And because of
00:07:14.760 | the cross covering our sin and securing God's everlasting favor for us as
00:07:23.440 | sinners, every single good thing that comes into our life as part of the
00:07:30.360 | blessings we will enjoy forever in God's favor was purchased by the cross. And
00:07:37.920 | every painful thing that comes into our life that God turns for good was
00:07:42.880 | purchased by the cross, and therefore the cross is the foundation and the central
00:07:48.560 | glory of grace at every moment of our lives. That's my answer to the meaning of
00:07:55.560 | Galatians 6:14. And here's my suspicion about this irony that the main
00:08:02.960 | point of the sermon is swallowed up by the illustrations. I think that in God's
00:08:08.800 | way of working through preaching—preaching solid, biblically faithful,
00:08:13.800 | carefully argued, clearly explained expositions of rich textual meaning—is
00:08:22.200 | that this exposition becomes the soil, the preaching soil, in which illustrations
00:08:32.520 | become credible and powerful in a lasting and substantial way. So it would
00:08:39.560 | be wrong—I'm trying to comfort myself now—it would be wrong to say in my low
00:08:46.600 | moments that because the stories in the sermon were remembered and the exegesis
00:08:53.080 | wasn't, therefore the exegesis was peripheral. I think that is profoundly
00:08:58.560 | wrong, mistaken, because I think if a pastor gives himself, after looking at
00:09:06.080 | the sermon and thinking, "Oh, it's the stories that are remembered," he gives
00:09:08.960 | himself, "We can and we can't," and we count to story, story, story, story, story, and begins
00:09:12.960 | to marginalize and minimize exposition, those stories will lose their
00:09:19.480 | credibility. They will lose their power. So there's my answer to that apparent
00:09:24.400 | irony of that message. Here's another irony. One more. I preached that
00:09:31.360 | sermon in Memphis to, what, 30,000, 40,000? I don't know how many were there. 18 to 25
00:09:37.080 | year olds? It was very difficult, frankly. The wind was blowing my notes off. I was
00:09:43.360 | preaching as a one-armed paper hanger, and I was bothered by how many
00:09:49.600 | people were milling around, you know, going to the bathroom, and it was very
00:09:54.080 | distracting. But I did preach it to 18 to 25 year olds, and I think more people in
00:10:01.400 | the succeeding 15 years, in their 50s and 60s, have thanked me for that book that
00:10:10.920 | grew out of that sermon than the 20s have. I think I can say that with
00:10:14.680 | pretty serious confidence, that more people in their 50s and 60s have thanked
00:10:19.600 | me for that book. And I think the reason is, it's an irony, because I wrote the
00:10:23.360 | book for college-age people, hoping that the book would be given as a graduation
00:10:27.600 | gift, which I still think is what people should do with it. But I think that
00:10:32.680 | irony is that the illustration that most people remembered was the contrast
00:10:39.120 | between two pairs of people, right? The first pair were two 80-somethings, Ruby
00:10:44.720 | Eliason and Laura Edwards, a nurse and a doctor, who had spent their lives serving
00:10:50.160 | the poor in Africa in the name of Jesus, and one of them had been single all
00:10:55.680 | her life, one of them was married and a widow now. And in their 80s, they were still
00:11:00.920 | serving, they're driving a car, and their car's brakes give out, they fly over a
00:11:05.800 | cliff in Cameroon, and both of them go into heaven and meet Jesus in their 80s
00:11:11.920 | after a lifetime of serving the poor. And then the other couple was, whatever their
00:11:18.080 | names were, you mentioned them, I can't remember their names, these 50-somethings
00:11:21.600 | who took their early retirement, moved to Punta Gorda, Florida, which means, by the
00:11:26.120 | way, Fat Point, and they devoted themselves to collecting shells and
00:11:31.680 | playing softball and riding their 30-foot yacht. And I asked those 30,000
00:11:37.360 | young people, "Okay, was the death of these two servants of Christ entering heaven in
00:11:45.480 | their 80s through a car crash a tragedy? Was that a waste?" And they shouted out,
00:11:50.720 | "No!" What is a tragedy? I'll tell you what a tragedy is, two healthy 50-somethings
00:11:59.640 | wasting their lives collecting shells, that's a tragedy. And that's the sentence
00:12:04.960 | that everybody remembers, "Shell collecting." Look, Jesus, here's my shell
00:12:10.800 | collection that I gathered for you in the last 20 years of my God-given life
00:12:16.360 | not to be wasted on your account. So I suppose it's not so ironic that the book
00:12:24.560 | not only confronts young people with the plea, "Don't get sucked into the so-called
00:12:30.960 | American dream," but also shakes 50-somethings who were just about to
00:12:36.480 | step into it, just about to spend the last 20 or 30 years of their lives
00:12:41.840 | dinking around, and shakes them free from their comfort trance and catapults them,
00:12:50.960 | hundreds of them, into something way more significant than collecting shells.
00:12:56.920 | So how does the book fit into the overall Piper corpus? I suppose one way
00:13:03.240 | to say it would be that virtually everything I write aims to help people
00:13:09.440 | not waste their lives. But this one, this book, more than any other, cuts to the
00:13:16.880 | chase, puts the finger on the chest, and says, "Don't do that. Don't waste your life."
00:13:25.720 | So good. That message 18 years ago, boasting only in the cross, became then
00:13:32.840 | the best-selling book, "Don't Waste Your Life," which has since sold 650,000 copies,
00:13:37.440 | has become a classic graduation present. And I should mention that the book is
00:13:42.240 | now out in two brand-new editions in 2018, both with a new preface and new
00:13:47.480 | cover designs. The new paperback edition features a simple red cross which is
00:13:52.440 | debossed on a kraft paper cover with French flaps to mark your spot in the
00:13:57.600 | books. I love those French flaps. And the interior is printed on a cream stock
00:14:02.600 | paper with deckled edges. It is really a beautiful design by our friends at
00:14:06.680 | Crossway on that paperback. And now the book is also available as a hardcover
00:14:10.320 | gift edition. It's a red cloth cover in a black slipcase, a really sharp gift
00:14:17.240 | edition now out. Both are available online now. I'm gonna leave off today's
00:14:22.880 | episode with four of the most memorable minutes of that message coming from the
00:14:27.040 | introduction, "Boasting Only in the Cross" is the title of the message, and we'll
00:14:31.640 | see you on Wednesday. Ruby Eliason, over 80, single all her life, a nurse, poured
00:14:43.800 | her life out for one thing, to make Jesus Christ known among the sick and the poor
00:14:51.680 | in the hardest and most unreached places. Laura Edwards, a medical doctor in the
00:14:59.840 | Twin Cities, and then in retirement, partnering up with Ruby, also pushing 80,
00:15:08.400 | and going from village to village in Cameroon. And the brakes give way, over a
00:15:16.320 | cliff they go, and they're dead instantly. And I asked my people, "Is this a tragedy?"
00:15:27.880 | Two women in their 80s, a whole life devoted to one idea, Jesus Christ
00:15:39.320 | magnified among the poor and the sick in the hardest places, and 20 years after
00:15:49.520 | most of their American counterparts had begun to throw their lives away on
00:15:55.160 | trivialities in Florida and New Mexico, fly into eternity with a death in a
00:16:01.680 | moment. "Is this a tragedy?" I asked. It is not a tragedy. I'll read you what a
00:16:10.040 | tragedy is. I've got a little article here from Reader's Digest. You don't read
00:16:16.640 | Reader's Digest, I know that, but there is a generation who does. This is a tragedy.
00:16:24.840 | Title of the article, "Start Now, Retire Early." February 1998. Bob and Penny took
00:16:36.000 | early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59
00:16:42.880 | and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their
00:16:50.320 | 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect shells. That's a tragedy. That's a
00:17:06.080 | tragedy and there are people in this country that are spending billions of
00:17:11.120 | dollars to get you to buy it. And I get 40 minutes to plead with you, "Don't buy
00:17:20.600 | it." With all my heart, I plead with you, "Don't buy that dream." The American dream.
00:17:31.080 | A nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting
00:17:42.520 | shells. As the last chapter before you stand before the Creator of the universe
00:17:51.680 | to give an account with what you did, "Here it is, Lord, my shell collection. Look,
00:18:02.160 | Lord, my shell collection. And I've got a good swing. And look at my boat. God, look
00:18:16.200 | at my boat, God." Well, not for Ruby and not for Laura. Don't waste your life.
00:18:28.240 | Don't waste it.
00:18:31.800 | [BLANK_AUDIO]