Kennystix's podcast
Think Christ (with Russian Interpretation)
The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from desiring God is available at www.desiringGod.org. Well, let's pray together. Would you pray with me? No way to bamol himself. What shall we render to the Lord for all of His benefits to us? We will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. If we give the name of the Lord, we will give the name of the Lord. And so, we're lifting up our empty cups, asking that you would come and fill them again. What shall we give the Lord to the Lord? Make us receptive to your word. What shall we give the name of the name of the Lord? Grant me to be a faithful spokesman for your truth. What shall we give the name of the Lord to the Lord? And reveal to us, Father, the proper role of the mind in the Christian life. What shall we give the name of the Lord to the Lord? And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Vaihimi esusachrista, amen. Briefly, by way of review, my main point this morning was that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. I would like to remind you that this morning that that is especially true in times of suffering and hardship. So, please don't leave here and say that John Piper told us to pursue our joy means avoid hardship. Jesus said very clearly it is more blessed to give than to receive. There is something more deeply satisfying in the human soul when you give yourself away than when you use other people to get. I don't know anybody who has said that the bright, sunny, easy days have made them most happy in God. I would like to remind you that when you give yourself away, you will not have to forgive yourself. It is just the opposite. Walking through deep waters of suffering have driven people down into God where they find Him most satisfying. In our church where somebody is always dying, when you have a large church, somebody is always dying. So, we wave the flag of 2 Corinthians 6 verse 10. There is one phrase in that verse which comes in the context of Paul's sufferings. The phrase is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. None of you has suffered more than the Apostle Paul. Five times his back was lacerated with 39 lashes. Some of you may have suffered much, but none of you has been lacerated with your back five times with 39 lashes. He was beaten with rods, three times. He was shipwrecked over and over. He was continually imprisoned on Dolge Veremy, a prevelve of Chirimea. He had enemies around him all the time, even in the church. He was in danger on the highways, and he said, "I am sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." You get a picture of it in the Philippian jail, don't you? After 16 of Acts. There are Silas and Paul at midnight after being beaten, and they are in stocks with their legs, and they are singing hymns. Silas and Paul at the same time were supposed to be beaten, and it was a common story. That's the kind of man I want to be. I want to embrace suffering for Christ. And I want to rejoice in it. So, please, do not interpret this morning's message as calling you to avoid hardship. What makes the glory of Christ shine most brightly in your life is when your satisfaction in God is unshakable by suffering. This morning we saw that for you as a pastor, it matters that you do your work out of a sense of joy in God. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I said that I had one more point to make at the end of this morning's message. Let me make that point just briefly before we begin tonight's message. If joy in God is central to our ministry, we will be protected from many errors. And I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. For example, one of the errors that begins to rise in the church is intellectualism or an over-intellectualized view of the faith. And I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. And then people look at that emphasis and they begin to react and they go in the other direction and there's where you get many of the worst extremes of the charismatic movement. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. I find many people come to our church out of the extremes of the charismatic movement because they're hungry for good doctrine, but they don't want to give up emotion. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. Here's another example. If we keep joy in God at the center, we will avoid much legalism. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. Legalism happens when there is a huge emphasis on outward behaviors without an appropriate emphasis on inward joy. And then people see that error and they start swinging to the other extreme into antinomianism where you don't have any proper behaviors. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. My point is that if you keep joy in God at the center of your ministry, you will be protected from these kinds of extremes. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. Tonight I want to shift away from focusing on joy to focusing on how the life of the mind, how thinking relates to that joy. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. Let me state my main point in several different ways. I would like to thank you very much for joining us today. Right thinking about God exists to serve right feelings for God. Logic exists for the sake of love. Reasoning exists for the sake of rejoicing. Doctrine exists for the sake of delight. Doctrine exists for the sake of delight. Action about God exists for the sake of affection for God. The head is meant to serve the heart. Galava does not sujit sierzo. So knowing truth is the proper means to admiring truth. So thinking and feeling are indispensable. But they are not both ultimate. Thinking exists to serve admiring or worshiping or delighting in or being satisfied in God. The devil himself has many right thoughts about God. My guess is the devil on some doctrines is more orthodox than you are, more correct than you are. But none of these doctrines give rise, cause in the devil, and he loves for God, and he worships for God, and he delights in God. The devil himself has many right thoughts about God. The devil totally believes that Jesus died for sinners. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. And the devil hates him. So knowing right things about Jesus doesn't automatically produce right affections. But knowing those right things about Christ is essential for having right affections for God. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. Let me try to illustrate why it is that a well reasoned delight honors Christ. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. Suppose that you are walking down the street and a total stranger comes up to you and gives you a bag with $10,000 in it and asks you to deposit that money in his bank account and gives you his bank account number. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. The devil believes that Jesus rose from the dead. And you don't know this man at all. And you ask him, "Who are you and why are you trusting me with $10,000 in cash to deposit this in your bank account?" Why don't you think I am stealing? I don't know. I don't know this man at all. He says, "I don't have any reason at all for trusting you. I just feel this warm feeling in my heart that you are a trustworthy person." Now, the question is, do you feel honored by that warm feeling in his heart? The question is, do you feel honored by that warm feeling in his heart? No. You don't feel honored. He's stupid. He's crazy. He's irrational. He has no reason to trust you. He doesn't know you. We are not honored by good, deep feelings toward us if they don't have any basis. But suppose when you ask him, "Why are you trusting me?" But suppose he says, "You don't know me, but I have been watching you at work for over a year learning about your character." And therefore, I have a deeply felt confidence that you will not steal my money. You are a man of character and I have reasons for believing that. Now, do you feel honored by that deep feeling in that man's heart? Yes, you do. Because emotions that are well-grounded, feelings of confidence and trust and delight in a person that have reasons are an honor to that person. They glorify that person. So, when I say, "God is most honored or glorified in me," when I am most satisfied in him, I mean a well-grounded satisfaction. I see real things in Jesus Christ and in God the Father. I see real reasons for being satisfied in him. Therefore, my emotions are truly an honor to him because they are based on real reasons. So, the mind is supposed to be engaged in seeing reality for what it is and awakening the heart to love God for all that he is. Now, what I want to do in the rest of this evening is to give you ten pointers from the scriptures, ten reasons from the scriptures that the function of thinking is crucial in being satisfied in God. Now, in the rest of this evening, I am going to give you a question from Jesus Christ in the past. Reason number one. Let's go to Romans chapter ten. And I'll read the first two verses here. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. So, here is a group of people that have a zeal for God. And it is doing them no good at all. They are not even saved. We know that they are not saved because in verse one he is praying for their salvation. And so, clearly, the problem is, according to verse two, their zeal does not accord with knowledge. So, as much emphasis as I put this morning on zeal for God, now you can see how worthless that zeal is if it's not based on true knowledge. So, the use of the mind to come to true knowledge is necessary so that our satisfaction in God will be in honor to him. And so, the reason why we are here is because we are not only in the same way, but in the same way. Argument number two. Second Timothy chapter two verse seven. For the Lord will give you understanding in everything. The Lord will give you understanding in everything. Many people believe that and think that the understanding will be given to them without thinking. That's the opposite of what Paul said. See, I don't know if it's in the Russian, but it's there in the Greek. The word "for" at the beginning of the second half of the verse. For the Lord will give you understanding. In other words, because of the fact that there is no Greek, there is no Greek, there is no Greek, no Greek, no Greek. In other words, because God gives understanding, therefore think over what I say. Don't say because God gives understanding, I don't need to think. And don't say because I'm thinking God doesn't need to give it to me, I can get it on my own. It's both and not either or. Think over what I say, because in and through your thinking, God gives understanding. When I am preparing a sermon, I open my Bible. Or I turn on my computer Bible program. And I begin to think about the words, and think about the conjunctions, and think about the phrases and the order of the propositions. I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure. And every few minutes I pause and I say, "Oh God, open my eyes, grant me light, grant me to see what is really here." Because I know that I am dependent on the Holy Spirit to see the truth that is really here. But that does not stop me from thinking. Because Paul said, think over what I say. Thinking hard about biblical truth is the means through which the Holy Spirit opens us to the truth. I am not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure. Argument number three, Acts chapter 17. The Apostle Paul, time and time again, entered into the synagogue in order to persuade Jews to become Christians. I am not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure. How did he do that? How did he do that? Chapter 17 verses two and three of Acts. He went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying, "This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ." Paul knows that these unbelievers are blind and deaf and dead in their trespasses and sins. So you might wonder, "Well, if all these people that he's talking to are blind and deaf and dead, why is he arguing with them?" So the question is, if Paul believes that these unbelievers are blind, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual, spiritual. So the question is, if Paul believes that these unbelievers are blind, spiritually blind and deaf and dead, why would he even talk to them? Because God has ordained that the means through which life would be given and truth would be imparted is through Paul's reasoning. Paul knows that according to 1 Peter, chapter 1 verse 23, we are born again through the Word of God. And so the new birth is a supernatural, holy spirit caused miracle, but God does it through reasoning over the gospel. Do you remember what Luke said about how Lydia in Acts 16 was saved? Paul finds this group of women beside a river and he shares the gospel with me. He reasons with them out of his mind and his mouth. And Lydia is listening with her mind into a rational presentation of the gospel. And Luke says, "The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was spoken." So you have to have both. You have to have Paul's mind and mouth speaking a rational presentation of the gospel and you have to have the Holy Spirit opening Lydia's heart to receive it. Then you have to receive it. Argument number four. Let's go to Luke chapter 12. The point here is that Jesus assumes that human beings use logic and he holds them accountable to use their logic well. Sometimes I have been told that Aristotelian logic, the logic that we get from Aristotle is western and Greek and not hebraic or biblical and therefore doesn't belong in the presentation of the gospel. In Adam, the idea of the idea of the logic is not only the form of logic, but the logic is not only the form of logic. The logic is not only the logic that we get from the creation of. Let me just explain briefly what I mean by Aristotelian logic. Premise number one, all men are mortal. That's a syllogism that came straight from Aristotle. And I believe straight from God. Now you have to decide does God hold you accountable to think clearly like that? I think that the logic is not only the logic that we get from the Bible. Would God be pleased if you used a syllogism like this? Cows have four legs. My dog has four legs. Therefore my dog is a cow. I don't think God would be pleased. Because that's bad logic. You should not care at all about my opinion about logic. You should care a lot about what Jesus thinks about logic. Listen carefully as we read verses 54 through 57. Of Luke 12. Jesus said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once a shower is coming. And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say there will be scorching heat. And it happens. You hypocrites. You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky. Why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Why do you not judge that is use your minds for yourselves what is right? If you do not judge that is wrong, you should be able to do it. You should not judge that is wrong, you should not judge that is wrong, you should be wrong. You should not judge that is wrong, you should not judge that. You should not judge that is wrong, you should not judge that. Let's notice the syllogism implied in verse 55. Jesus is saying to these people, "You are really good in using your minds when it comes to matters like weather." So here is the syllogism. Premise number one, it always gets hot when a south wind blows. Premise number two, a south wind is blowing. Conclusion, it will be hot today. Now that is pure Aristotelian logic. Which I believe is straight out of the mind of God. And confirmed by the example of Jesus and Jesus holding these people accountable to use it well. What do you think he means in verse 57? Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? Your minds are so effective when they are dealing in natural things. But when your minds are applied to spiritual things, you don't think clear at all. It would be like contemporary Russians and Americans being able to do amazing scientific things. You don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well. Secular man, without the gospel, creates medicines, he creates cars, he puts people in space. Secular man, without the gospel, uses his mind in an amazing way. I think Jesus would say to a university educated, secular American or secular Russian, why do you not use your brilliant mind to understand and know me? You don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well. You don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well, you don't have to do it well. Argument number five. Let's go to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew 21 verses 23 to 27. Matthew 21 verses 23 to 27. Now what I want you to look for in this paragraph is this. There is a kind of use of the mind that Jesus hates. I want you to ask, as we read this paragraph, what are these people doing with their minds that Jesus abominates? I want you to look for some of these things. I'll read the paragraph, and then Alex can read it. And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?" Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you a question. And if you tell me the answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things." Verse 25. The baptism of John, where did it come from? From heaven? Or did it come from man? And they discussed it among themselves saying, "If we say from heaven, he will say, "Why didn't you believe him?" But if we say, "From man, we're afraid of the crowds, for they all hold that John was a prophet." So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." And then they said, "We don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did, we don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did, we don't know what he did. And if we say, "We don't know what he did, we don't know what he did, we don't know what he did." What were they doing with their minds? These are very bright people. They're smart. And they say, "Well, if we give him this answer, we're trapped because we didn't believe." But if we give him this answer, we're trapped because we didn't believe. But if we give him this other answer, we're trapped because the people are going to be angry with us. So how can we get out of the trap? Let's use our minds to get out of the trap. Here's a good way to get out of the trap. We will say, "We don't know." Let's take a look at his name. That text makes me very angry. I am surrounded in America by people like that. Instead of using their minds to come to strong convictions and let the chips fall where they will and suffer for what's true, they're always angling to get out of traps. I want you, young pastors especially, but all of you, I want you to not be this kind of person. If you're mind studying the truth leads you to a conviction that will get you into trouble, believe it, speak it. There are so many pastors who conceal from their people their convictions because they're afraid of conflict. Let me read you one verse that is the exact opposite of the way these people use their minds. Second Corinthians chapter 4. Second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. We don't have to do that, we don't have to do that, we don't have to do that. We don't have to do that, we don't have to do that, we don't have to do that, we don't have to do that. That is a beautiful description of a godly pastor. I want to be that kind of preacher so bad. I just want to stand before God on the last day and say I tried to be faithful and let people think what they wanted to think. I don't want to be the kind of pastor who's always watching what people are going to say and then governing what comes out of his mouth by what the people are going to say. I don't want to be the kind of pastor who is sitting on the street. I don't want to be the kind of pastor of God, I don't want to be the kind of pastor who is talking about it, I don't want to be the kind of pastor who is talking about it. Argument number 6. 13 times in Paul's letters, he uses the rhetorical question, do you not know? Let me just give you a few examples without looking them up. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Do you not know that we will judge angels? Do you not know that when you lie with a prostitute you become one body with her? Do you not know that a little leavens the whole lump? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom? Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Do you not know that Paul uses that phrase? No, do you not know? He's thinking if you knew you would be acting differently. If you knew these things, your heart would be different. So he's writing his letters to help them have the kind of knowledge that will change their lives. This is the way we transform our churches. We don't manipulate them and coerce them into trying to act certain ways. You don't know them. You don't know them, you don't know them. My wife and I, I remember, visited a church in Asheville, North Carolina. You probably won't know where that is. We visited a church while we were on vacation. And my wife, who is very tolerant, left the church saying, "I don't think we'll ever go back there." And now we're going to talk about what we're going to do. We're going to talk about what we're going to do. This preacher had spent his whole sermon hammering on his people to come to the meeting on Wednesday nights. We're going to talk about what we're going to do. And hammering on them to give money, the way they should give money. We're going to talk about what we're going to do. We sat there thinking, "This isn't working." "We just wanted to go away." And the people were going away. And the only thing he knew to do to help them not go away is to tell them, "Don't go away." That's not what Paul did. Paul said, "Don't you know that it is more blessed to give than to receive?" I want you to know the blessing of giving. I love you people. I want you to know the blessing of giving. You can't manipulate people. You can't coerce people and make them do things. It has to come from inside, come from their heart. That means they have to have knowledge that awakens love. That means they have to have knowledge that awakens love. Argument number seven. The Bible tells us that God or Christ has given to his church pastors and teachers. We find that in Ephesians 4, 11. And he tells us in 1 Timothy 3 that these leaders should be apt to teach. They should be good teachers. So all of you pastors or people, young men, who are hoping to be pastors, should be thinking, "God is giving me as a gift to my church." Ephesians 4, 11. And then he tells me the way you will be a gift to your church is if you are an effective teacher. I think that implies that ordinary folks in the pew, need help understanding their Bible. If the sheep didn't need help understanding their Bible, God would not have given shepherds who had to be apt to teach. So our job is to look at the Bible and work hard to understand what's here and then work hard to make it understandable and attractive and compelling to our people. I, a few Sundays ago, was reading in Luke 24, and I read that passage where they say, "Did not our hearts burn within us as Jesus opened to us the scriptures about himself?" And I wrote in my journal after I read that, "Oh God, make me that kind of teacher, I want the hearts of my people to burn as I open to them the scriptures." Okay, argument number 8. Turn to Acts chapter 20 verse 27. And there's a phrase here that is very important. Paul says in Acts 20 verse 27, speaking to the elders of Ephesus. "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God." What is the whole counsel of God? That would be another sermon series to unpack what that is. But here's the one point I want to make tonight. In order to give to our people the whole counsel of God, it takes tremendous mental effort to find the whole counsel of God in the Bible. In one sense, this is the whole counsel of God. In one sense, this is the whole counsel of God. But that's not what Paul meant here. This is too big. He didn't read the Bible to them on the beach in the afternoon. There must be a faithful way to sum this up in what's called a coherent and unified whole counsel of God. In my point, it takes mental work to find what that is. You don't read through your Bible once or twice or ten times and suddenly know the whole counsel of God. The whole counsel of God. You have to ask hard questions about how the different parts of Revelation fit together. I think this is why in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, Paul calls the expositor a workman who rightly handles the word. It takes hard mental work to rightly handle the word of God according to this verse. I think it takes a lot of time, but it takes a lot of time. Don't let anybody ever tell you that hard mental work is unspiritual. You are using your mind to understand God's word and you are depending in prayer upon the Holy Spirit to guide your mind. The Bible is a book. Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He came in the flesh and was called the word of God. He taught many things and he did many things. He died for sins and he rose again. All of that foundational speaking and doing is preserved in a book. My point is simply reading a book is very hard work. It takes a lot of time, but it takes a lot of time. For most of you, Russian is your native language. You learned it when you were 2 or 3 or 4 years old. You didn't know you were working when you did it. You didn't know if you were working when you were in the flesh. So just like me with English, you with Russian, you assume that reading just comes naturally. There is a kind of passive reading and there is an active reading that digs and wants to understand everything it sees. My point is that a pastor must be one of those active readers that will not rest until he can explain what he is reading. God did not have to give the church a book. God did not have to give the church a book. He could have done it another way. He could just give daily dreams to us all. He could cause things to be written in the sky. He could communicate any way he wanted to. He could communicate any way he wanted to. God did not have to give the church a book. God did not have to give the church a book. It is because we are dependent on a book that we want people quickly to learn how to read and quickly to have the Bible in their language. And quickly to learn how to think carefully and doctrinally about the book. What I want to do here in closing is simply show you what I mean by thinking carefully about a passive description. So let's go finally to Matthew 7. Verse 7 through 12. Now what is Jesus doing in verse 11? The answer is, he is reasoning. He is reasoning from what is less likely to what is more likely. What is less likely is that an evil father will give good things to his children. But evil fathers do give good things to their children. So the way the argument works is, God is a father who is not evil. How much more will your father give you good things when you ask him? This is an argument, this is a reasoning. He expects the people in your church to follow this reasoning. Why? Because he wants them to feel joyful confidence that God answers prayer. Jesus doesn't aim at right reasoning, he uses right reasoning to aim at joyful confidence. So how are you going to help your people believe in prayer, believe that God answers prayer? You will reason with them, you will use arguments like Jesus used arguments. You will say, look, here is a father and he is not a very good man. But how kind he is now and then towards his children. Now what kind of a father is God? He is a perfect father, he doesn't have any evil in him at all. If an evil father gives good things, will not a perfect father give good things. Shall we not tonight pray with high expectation that he will move for our city? He is a very good man, he is a very good man. He is a very good man, he is a very good man, he is a very good man. He is a very good man, he is a very good man, he is a very good man. You don't just hammer people to try to make them pray. You use biblical arguments like this to awaken their sense of confidence in answered prayer. One last observation from this passage. I don't know if the word is there in the Russian. The beginning of verse 12. In the Greek has the Greek word "oon" and some of you know what that is, it means "therefore or so" in English. If you are a very good man, you are a very good man. So, or therefore, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. If I were preaching on this, I would say to my people, what is the relationship between your treating other people with love, the way you would like to be treated, and what Jesus had just said about prayer? If you are a very good man, you are a good man. I would lean, I would press my people, think with me about this, think with me about this. What is the logical connection between verses 11 and 12? If you are a very good man, you are a very good man. If you are a very good man, you are a very good man. I just thought of something I will put in here that I hadn't planned to say. I preached to the German-Russian church in Bonn last Sunday morning. If you are a very good man, you are a very good man. I was preaching from the Bible. As far as I could tell, nobody had a Bible. That's not because they are poor. I don't know what the reason is. If you are a very good man, you are a very good man. If you are a very good man, you are a very good man. I couldn't show them anything. I want to say look with me, look with me, I want you to see this. You shouldn't take my word for it, who am I? I am just a man. You shouldn't take my word for it, who am I? I am just a man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. You don't bring it to church? I am a very good man. I am a very good man. What kind of preaching has caused that to come about? I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. You've got to see the connection between verses 11 and 12, or they won't live this way. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. You can't say to sinful human beings like me. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. Treat everybody the way you would like to be treated. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. That would totally transform American and Russian society. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. None of us can live that way in our own strength. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. Where do you get the strength to treat somebody the way you would like to be treated? Which means you inconvenience yourself for their benefit. The answer to that question is in the word "therefore" at the beginning of verse 12. Because you have a father in heaven who promises to give you everything you really need, therefore you can love other people at great cost to yourself. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. Summing up, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. When we are most satisfied in him, our lives are freed from greed and fear to become radical, risk-taking sacrificial lovers of other people. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. I am a very good man. And that kind of satisfaction in God comes from right thinking about God in the Bible. The last thing we will do tomorrow morning, Lord willing, is ask how does this stream of satisfaction in God and right thinking about God produce preaching. It is not that we are going to be able to help ourselves. We are going to be able to help ourselves. We are going to be able to be able to help ourselves. We are going to be able to be able to be able to help ourselves. Let's close in a word of prayer. Thank you very much. Father in Heaven, I pray that many things will be the result of what we have done here together tonight. I pray that one of the things that will result is a high love for and regard for the Bible. I pray that a new result to think deeply about the Bible will result. I pray that a new result to think deeply about the Bible will result. I pray that the effect of that right thinking about your word will be profound. I pray that the effect of that right thinking about your word will be profound satisfaction in you in our hearts. I pray that the effect of that deep satisfaction in you will be new lives of radical love among our people. I pray that the effect of those radically changed lives would be a transformed Baptist Union and a transformed city and a transformed nation and a transformed world. I pray that the effect of that is the reason that the effect of the effect of this is the reason. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission. We invite you to visit desiring.online at www.desiringgod.org. There you'll find hundreds of sermons, articles, radio broadcasts and much more all available to you at no charge. Our online store carries all of Pastor John's books, audio and video resources. You can also stay up to date on what's new at desiring God. Again, our website is www.desiringgod.org or call us toll free at 1-888-346-4700. Our mailing address is Desiring God, 2601 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55406. Desiring God exists to help you make God your treasure because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. [BLANK_AUDIO]
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