It's pretty hard to overstate how the computer altered all of our lives.

And as I listened through old sermons, I'm struck by how quickly John Piper knew that

they would, knew that the microprocessor would change all of our lives, bringing computers

into our homes and that eventually bringing smartphones into our pockets.

He saw the implications of this computer revolution decades ago, way back when he was shopping

for his first computer in the early years of his pastrid.

He explained some of those implications in a sermon from the spring of 1984.

Our new digital powers would be bewitching, he says.

Our gadgets would take hold of our affections, computers would bring tremendous blessings

to our lives, but they could also corrupt our hopes and our affections.

Here's Pastor John explaining how from 36 years ago.

Last Thursday, the day I usually take off, Noel and I took about three hours out of our

day off to go visit computer shops downtown Minneapolis, thought I would poke around

to see if there might be some kind of word processing equipment I could someday afford

and was an amazing experience.

My first foray into the big world of computer life went to the library first and read

the latest consumer reports on word processing and then we visited four stores and came home

with big sack of colorful brochures.

Computers are like sacks I discovered.

There's something in us that they can hook into and hold on to.

Computers are like a romance or an epic or an adventure which has come true right before

our very eyes.

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