Kennystix's podcast
When I Don’t Desire God (Part 1)
The following resource is from desiringGod.org. Let's pray together. Your mercies are new every evening, Lord, and every midnight, and every afternoon, and every morning, early and late, and though sometimes they seem to tarry, they arrive at the proper time, and so now I want to pray, Lord, for these folks who are here, that though some of them are in a very dark season, and they wonder where the mercies are, that you would use our several hours together to bring about a most remarkable awakening. An awakening of knowledge and an awakening of spiritual sight and an awakening of heart affection for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Lord, we don't want to settle for mere head knowledge or mere emotionalism. We want to pull together our whole being, because you have revealed yourself to be known and you have revealed yourself to be enjoyed, and therefore I'm pleading with you to turn these hours together into miracles of awakening. I pray for any who is hearing my voice, who has not yet been born again from above, that the Word of God that is sharper than any two-edged sword and is living an active will penetrate into the hearts of those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, that they might live and taste and see that you are true and that you are good. And then I have a special burden, Lord, for struggling saints, saints for whom the language of delight, pleasure, satisfaction, treasuring is a foreign language for their souls. They have grown up in a kind of decisionistic atmosphere where everything seems to be willpower. And affections, they don't matter very much, in fact they're threatening. I have a special place in my heart for them, and there are many in this room like that, and I pray that you administer wholeness to them. So come and help me, please, and help us in these hours together, that there would be a gift of listening and a gift of speech, an anointing from the Holy Spirit, so that I would be protected from error and pride and fear of man, and that these folks would be protected from distraction or undue negative reaction to something that might be new and biblical, protect them from any mistakes I may make. Guard us from the devil. May we lift the shield of faith right now and quench every fiery dart that he would shoot at us to deceive us, mislead us, discourage us, oppress us, make us want to walk out of this room. So come, Lord, we are not here to play games. We are here to see the King through his word, by his spirit, that we might be conformed from one degree of glory to the next, into the image of Jesus Christ, that there might be a radiance in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and I don't know where these folks have come from, but, Lord, that the radiance of Christ would spread out from this place. This is our heart's desire, come now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You can hear that I had a kind of person in my mind, and I did because of a recent conversation at my church, and this is such a typical conversation. There's nothing extraordinary about it, any pastor in the room has had it. Most of you have walked through it, a woman who comes into my office and basically says, like many of you feel, it feels Pastor John as though the distance between my head, which is totally affirming of everything you preach, and my heart is about a thousand months. That's why I wrote this book and why we named this conference that. It's called "When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight for Joy." Because there are a lot of people like that, and there are a lot of people who think that doesn't matter, and there are some people that states the way it does matter in totally misleading ways, and so we want to work on this together. I am on what I consider an apostolic mission. John Bloom, my partner for 10 years, who was at the piano before I came up here, asked me at the airport as we were flying down here today, how do you feel? How do you feel about tonight? And I said, I feel like I'm on an apostolic mission. I feel like I have the authority of Jesus Christ behind me because of 2 Corinthians 1-24, which says, and I say this to you now, not that I lorded over your faith, but I am a worker with you for your finish it, joy, worker with you for your joy. It's not an amazing statement, work. I am an apostolic workman, Paul says, for what? Happiness. But if you've ever thought about the apostolic mission of Paul on planet earth, not that I lorded over your faith, Corinthians, I am called to work with you alongside of you for your joy. And so that's the mission I am on here. I am a worker with you for your joy in these few hours that we have together. He said it in another place, unless you think that was kind of an isolated exceptional statement. Remember in Philippians 1, where he's struggling, am I going to live or am I not going to live? He settles it, yes, I believe I probably will live, convinced of this, I know I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. Yes, the Lord is going to leave me a little longer on planet earth so that I might advance your joy of faith. Isn't it amazing? Second Corinthians 1, 24, and Philippians 1, 25, two apostolic mandates to me to get down there to Greenville and work for their joy. So that's what I said in a shorter form to John in the airport. There's more. Let me give you four things I'm not coming to do. It helps to clarify what you do do when you decide what you don't do. I am not coming with a health, wealth, and prosperity gospel or on a health, wealth, and prosperity mission. I am not bringing the message that Christ will make you healthy, Christ will make you wealthy, Christ will make you prosperous in this life so that you can have joy. That's not my message. I am bringing you a message that Christ will give you himself so that you don't need health, wealth, and prosperity in order to be happy, but can have so much invincible joy in the durable Christ. You can give up health, wealth, and prosperity in the sacrifices of love if God so calls. It's a very dangerous conference. If you catch on to what I'm saying, or if any of you parents brought your kids, that's risky. I get in trouble with a lot of parents because of what kids do when they listen to messages like this. They do crazy things for Jesus after they learn that their joy can be rooted in something absolutely higher, more sure, more satisfying than the American dream which Dad had for them, and now he's really mad at me because they're in Afghanistan. I am not on a mission to add happy icing to the cake of your decision for Christ. I am on a mission to show you from Scripture that if all you have is a decision for Christ and no delight in Christ, you don't have Christ. We are not saved by mere decisions. We are saved by the sovereign work of God by His Spirit causing us to be born again, which brings into being a new creature who has new affections for God and less affection for the world. That's salvation. Salvation is not my brain doing what it can do by itself. My salvation is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit upon me doing what I cannot do for myself, bringing into being a new John Piper who has affections for God and is falling out of love with the world. So I'm not bringing you a message of happiness as the icing on the cake of decision, but rather I want to persuade you that if you understood saving faith all right, then delight in God would be a part of the cake, not just the icing, not the caboose at the end of the train and not just something dispensable for stoical personalities. Third, I am not on a mission to put your happiness above God's glory. I am on a mission to put your happiness in God's glory. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. Fourth, I am not on a mission to help you feel good about yourselves. I am on a mission to help you feel so good about the greatness of God that you forget about yourselves. And live a life of love making others glad in God. I'm going to say that again because in our 21st century mold and time on the back end of the crest of the wave of self-esteem, it needs to still be said, "I am not here to make you feel good about yourself." That's a low salvation, that's a low level American gospel message. I am here to make you so happy in God, to help you feel so good about the glory and majesty and beauty and justice and love and truth and power of God that in that you forget about yourself. Some of you have heard me say, I like to say it, nobody goes to the Grand Canyon to increase his self-esteem because on the edge of the Grand Canyon as you feel your soul being drawn out into this vast opening, that's not what happens. What happens is wonder, which is what you were made for, heaven will not be a hall of mirrors in which you like what you see. In fact, I just have the suspicion there will be any mirrors in heaven because anything good and beautiful about you will be radiated back to you from the other people that you're loving so much. It just bounces back to you, but mainly it's going to be about Jesus everywhere satisfying your soul so thoughts about you which in this world cause us so much grief and we think that the solution is to just feel better about me, better about the way I look, better about my height, my weight, my complexion, my hair, my mathematical ability. If I could just feel better about me, I'd be healed, you wouldn't, you wouldn't be healed. You'd have low level, low grade, non-satisfying measures of contentment. You were made to see God, love God, delighting God, be stunned by God. So I'm not here to help you feel good about yourself. I'm here to help you feel good about God and forget about yourself and give your life away in love to others, it is more blessed to give than to receive. So the content of these several messages assumes now a foundation in another conference that I did and a book that I wrote and I have to resist continually not preaching all that stuff again because I love to preach it. The conference I'm thinking about is the Blazing Center, it's in a DVD, I'm going to assume that conference. And the book I have in mind is either a Desiring God or God's Passion for His glory. I'm going to assume that but since I know I can't assume it totally, I have to squeeze in a few minutes of summary. So we are going to spend some time asking the foundational questions in this initial talk so that those of you who are not familiar with what I'm building on might be a little bit up to speed. So we got to ask some huge questions. The biggest question I've ever asked I think is why God does everything that He does. Because why I do things doesn't matter at all. Why God does things really matters, really, really matters. So why does God do everything He does? Is there a unifying motive for all that God does? And there is. And all of you who've heard any of my talks ever would know the answer because I say it over and over again and I'll say it now. God does all that He does to display His glory for the full and lasting enjoyment of all who embrace Christ as their highest treasure. God does everything that He does, everything that He does in order to display His glory for the enjoyment of all those who find in Christ their highest treasure. Isaiah 43, 6, "Bring my son, some afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory." So I know beyond the shadow of a doubt why you were made, you were made for God's glory. Isn't that amazing that I can stand in front of these people and say, "I know totally with confidence why every one of you in this room was created. You were created for the glory of God." Now that is an ambiguous statement. And I have thrown it around for years and realized how ambiguous for the glory of God is in people's ears. So I've come up with this little analogy to clarify how you should not glorify God than how you should glorify God, how you should not magnify God and how you should magnify God and it's the telescope, microscope analogy. Because magnifying glorify are very similar in their meaning, biblically. Paul says, "My aim is to magnify Jesus Christ." That's the same as glorified Jesus Christ. But oh, how ambiguous the word magnify is. Does it mean magnify God like a microscope magnifies or like a telescope magnifies? A microscope makes little teeny things look bigger than they are and a telescope makes gigantic things that to the naked eye look little look more like what they really are. Now which way are you called upon to magnify God? And the answer is like a telescope, not a microscope. It is blasphemy to magnify God like a microscope. Oh poor God, He is so teeny and so small. I must now make Him look bigger than He is. That's blasphemy. But in fact, in this world after the fall, God to most people is either not on their radar screen at all or a little tiny dot that might show through the smog of sin every two or three weeks with just a little twinkle that you might say exists. But significance zero and your calling is you are on planet earth to put a telescope to the eye of the world. That's why you exist. By your behavior, your parenting, the way you do your job, the way you worship, the way you handle your things in life, they should read off of your life, God is great. That's why you exist. Why are you forgiven? Isaiah 43, 25, "I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. I blot out your transgressions for my own sake," says the Lord. You are forgiven for God's glory, Isaiah 43, 25, Matthew 6, 9. Pray then like this, disciples, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Our kingdom come, your will be done." The very first petition that Jesus teaches us to pray is, "Make your name great in the world." That should be the number one thing you pray for. How are you doing? The number one prayer on your lips and springing from your heart is, "Hallowed be your name in my life, my family, my church, this city, this world. Oh, make your name holy, pure, righteous, set apart, valuable, big, one of a kind, magnificent, show yourself to the world, God, hallowed be your name." Number one petition in the church from your heart every day, and God the Son taught you to pray that, therefore God is teaching you to pray for the glory of God. First Peter 4.11, "He supplies strength to us for his glory." Whoever serves, let him serve in the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. If you serve, you should serve in the strength that God supplies, so that he may get the glory, not you. The giver gets the glory. First Peter 4.11, "He leads us for his glory," Psalm 23, "he restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness," tell me the next phrase, "for his name's sake." God leads you for his name's sake. Let's sum it up with Ephesians 1.11. God works all things according to the counsel of his will. All things. That's my question. Why do you do all things? God works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who first hoped in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. If you get this right, almost everything else I say I think will follow. It's getting this right. It's loving the truth that God does everything for God that turns a person's life upside down. I've preached messages that have gotten me emails from philosophy professors and theology professors, one of the messages was entitled, "Did Jesus die for us or for him or for God? Did Jesus die for us or for God?" And the answer is yes. And the word for means something different in each of those phrases. He died for us because we needed a substitute to bear our guilt and our wrath and he died for God in that God needed to be shown vindicated and righteous and holy in forgiving people like us. And so he had to put forth his son as a propitiation by his blood so that he could be seen to be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. But right at the center of the gospel, God is exalting God. So you get this amazing hammer below from Isaiah 48, 9. God says, "For my namesake, for my namesake, I defer my anger. For my sake, the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. How should my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another." That's one of the big questions that is a foundation for these hours we have together. We have to build on that. God does everything for the glory of God. And then we have to answer this second question briefly. Is that love? Is that loving? If you lived that way, nobody would call it love. If you went around doing everything for your glory, nobody would call that love. If you have something that you know will give others full and lasting pleasure, and instead of showing it to them, you elevate and exalt yourself, are you a loving person? No, you're most definitely not a loving person. And so it is with God. If God has something and he doesn't show it to us, even though it would bring us full and everlasting pleasure, God's not loving toward us. And so he must show us himself. There is no gift that God can give you that would make him a loving person if he withholds himself. All the gifts that you think about, forgiveness, justification, redemption, reconciliation, all the glorious gospel gifts. If God says you can have all that, but you can't have me on the other side, he's not loving toward me. Therefore God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation and self-presentation is synonymous with love. You may not follow him in this, except like this. If you go through the world saying, "I'm going to exalt myself now like God, we're supposed to be like God, so I'm going to exalt myself, and that will be loving, it won't be loving, it will be distracting." It will be distracting from what will satisfy their souls, because what will satisfy their souls is God. So if you want to imitate God in God's self-exaltation, then you become God-exalting, not self-exalting, because what will satisfy people's souls forever and ever and ever is seeing, knowing, loving, fellowshipping with God, therefore God to be loving must give himself, he must exalt himself, he must commend himself, he must call for praise and love. The only being in the universe for whom such behavior is love, it's the essence of love. You can't copy him in this, you're not God. For you to be love is to call attention to him. For him to be love is to call attention to him. And therefore in God's case, he's the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is identical to love. Here's the way I would define love to you. If you would ask me now, okay, if you have that, what does it mean for God to love me? What does it mean for God to love me? Here would be my answer. God loves you in that he does everything necessary in order that you might be enthralled forever and increasingly with what will bring you full and lasting happiness, namely himself. Now that was a long definition, let me say it again. For God to love you is for him to do everything, even the death of his son, even at the cost of his son's life, he will do everything he must do for his own in order that they might be enthralled with what will make them fully and eternally happy, namely himself. God must be bent on self-exaltation if he loves us. Thank you for listening to this resource from DesiringGod.org. If you found it helpful, we encourage you to enjoy and share from thousands of resources on our site, including books, sermons, articles, and more available free of charge. DesiringGod.org exists to help you treasure Jesus more than anything else because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
John Piper | God does everything for his glory. Therefore, you don’t need health, wealth, or prosperity in order to be happy.