early on I was very excited about what
computers could do in where it was going
to take us in 1968 I was hired by a
computer manufacturing company and this
company was manufacturing mini
mainframes and these mini mainframes
were designed to communicate to one
another for the first time I realized
that computers are going to be talking
to other computers networked it was a
very exciting time then in 1972 I came
to know Jesus Christ he opened up my
heart
he saved me I wasn't looking for him he
saved me in a power of God and
transforming my life was a big deal I
wanted everyone else to get saved as I
was saved and that's when I had me
I knew the power of the gospel I wanted
to communicate it to others and a
computer was going to make this possible
and above all to do it for free
in 1985 I bought my first personal
computer a Tandy 1000 a had two floppy
drives the monochrome monitor and a 300
watt modem and around the same time I
became exposed to bulletin board
software so people are dialing up my
telephone number and they were going on
my bulletin board called the Bible study
bolo board to download Bible passages or
entire books of the Bible it wasn't just
people in New England it wasn't just
people in the United States or Canada
they were coming these are people from
all over the world you know who would
ever think that that such a thing could
happen that people from all of these
places that are not normally Christian
were coming to get the Word of God from
this little city and the state of
Massachusetts this is the work of God
after my time and brief time of
computers I began working in a factory
and a factory job was a little agra fir
by trade printing industry at the same
time I'm serving as a pastor I was by
vocational
then in 1992 I went to a Bible
conference where one of the speaker's
was John Piper immediately I says I've
got to talk to this guy I have to have
to meet with this this brother so we
made our way downstairs where Piper was
and and there was only one other person
in line there wasn't a big line to talk
to Piper because nobody knew him I took
a shot in the dark and I had to ask him
do you keep your messages stored on the
computer and he looked at me he says you
mean a text retrieval system this is a
computer it says yes I had to ask him if
he would make them available to me so I
can make him available to others
sure put them all on floppy disk and set
them to you I thought for sure when I
you know returning home that I would
never hear from him again and and lo and
behold the mailman came with a package
and was floppy disc three and a half
floppy disc with his sermon sermons on
them as text files back then there was
no internet as we now know it there was
no broadband connections people were
using dial-up with slow mode was 1200
baud it was unbelievable everything was
through your telephone line and and the
ministries that did exist were selling
the gospel they were selling their
ministry was he might put it that way
and I was that really got me upset I
mean because they're selling God's Word
make him merchandise with God's Word and
there are people out there who needed to
hear this gospel and we had it within
our means to make it available to them
for free and we were not doing it that
drives me nuts
in 1994-95 the incident began to pick up
speed and I got 10 megabytes of storage
or service base that I was able to put
up a website so I took a year's worth of
John Piper sermons and I created a menu
page it linked them all together ended
up with a website and then I had to get
John typist permission would he allow me
to use his sermons as a website I sent
it an email and he responded that he'd
have to show this tour the people get
their opinion if he wasn't going to let
me do it to make his sermons available
for free then the Lord would have to
provide somebody else when we got the
email I was really intrigued in fact I
showed it to the staff and everybody was
excited and thought this really got a
lot of potential for reaching a lot of
people we had no idea how many and it
was all so new we didn't even know what
to call it and I had concerns because
some of these sermons that we were ready
to hand over had been put in books and I
didn't know anything about this
technology or copyright issue so it
seemed wise just to go on hold for a
little bit
following that conversation with John
and detecting the hesitancy now on the
need to consider everything I took down
the index page take down the index page
the website the weekend roll through and
I went back to work Monday and I'm in a
work place at my desk and the phone
rings this is my wife Karen and she says
they want to talk to you and I says they
have to wait till I get home
no sure that I sit down begin taking off
my work boots a phone rang and it's John
Piper on the phone heimo this is John
I'm trying to show some folks the sermon
note page and it's not there at least I
can't find it where'd it go
John I took it down this is your choice
everybody reads Charles Spurgeon
everybody reads the sermons because
there is there were no copyright issues
God can do the same thing with your
sermons I believe that with all my heart
yeah we can maintain the integrity just
by putting a copyright statement there
that's great let's do it
I'd rather make the mistakes moving in
this direction then not do it at all so
you got the green light from me
now the challenge really began now he
had to take all of these sermons that
were all done in different kinds of
formats and clean them up and create web
pages with them the law provided
thankfully a lot of volunteers and we
had a lot of work to do and by the year
2000 we had close to a million hits or
just about a million hits unique hits
from all over the world when I saw the
statistics I was stunned so many people
reading these sermons online so we knew
we needed to bring it in-house and make
something of it and get our staff on it
we had 800 sermons with God at the
center in 2001 and so we said let's put
them online let's make them free we're
not gonna sell them we just don't want
people to take them and sell them so
they can have them and Moe is the one
who said I'm gonna work for free I'm
gonna make them free we learned from him
and he was right I think God really
honored this strategy of giving things
away rather than selling them it was
most strategy at the beginning we took
it over from moe God is pleased I think
when we are generous as we can be so
when it came to audio and video and
ebooks we said let's just keep the same
strategy and then trust God to put it in
people's hearts to to give to the
ministry to support the commitment to
give things away that's what we've done
to this very day
and desiring God we do not despise the
day of small things especially not small
beginnings like a by vocational pastor
in a small Church in New England with a
big vision of putting text sermons
online and then 18 years later millions
of people coming to desiring God from
every country in the world we are simply
stunned at what God has done so here I
am coming to the end of my pastoral
ministry and my life mission statement
doesn't change at all I exist to spread
a passion for the supremacy of God in
all things for the joy of all peoples
through Jesus Christ and the mission of
desiring God doesn't change what we do
with that mission is add by highlighting
the truth and spreading the truth that
God is most glorified in us when we're
most satisfied in him we think that when
that truth takes root in a person's life
it changes everything and we want to see
everything changed for the glory of
Jesus all over this world so here as we
come to the end of 2012 I would look you
right in the eye and say it would make
us so happy if you supported us by
prayer supported us with with financial
giving we want to spread a passion for
the supremacy of God freely and the way
that happens that this ministry is for
people who have been touched by that
truth who know somebody who has been
transformed by the message would get
behind us and say go for it help us do
this so thank you so much in advance for
trusting us with what we think is a very
important
work
you