John Piper (82)
Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. Else they have a defective heart or a flameless hell.
John Piper
(Lasaunne conference)10.6K
Grace is God's giving us a sovereign joy in God that triumphs over the joy in sin.
Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/sustained-by-sovereign-grace-forever
Prayer is the answer to the disease of self-confidence.
The pain of our shattered plans is for the purpose of scattered grace. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God(106)
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't.
Grace doesn't mean that obedience is unnecessary, it means that it is finally possible.
Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centred on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to declare his glory among the nations (Ps 96:3)Let the Nations Be Glad (36)
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and what became of him after his resurrection, shows the greatness of God's power toward us now in this life.
Your belief is a miracle! You didn't choose it. Of course if you have a theology that says 'I did it' then you have no testimony to the power of God in your life!June 8 2011 Sermon (Minute 31)
Guilt and pain are gifts of God to warn us that the pleasures of sin are suicidal. Though they may feel good in the moment. SermonNov122000
There is a world of difference between praying and laboring for a renewed mind that discerns how to apply God's Word, on the one hand, and the habit of asking God to give you new revelation of what to do, on the other hand. Divination does not require transformation. God's aim is a new mind, a new way of thinking and judging, not just new information. Sermon Notes (August 22, 2004)
We don't take the words seriously when we use God as a throwaway word, or Jesus Christ as a word for when I just hit my finger or something terrible just happened, or damn as a swear word, or hell as a throwaway swear word. The problem with all those words is that they take things that are unbelievably important and serious, and they turn them into moments of smallness.
The death of God's Son is a greater proof to God's abhorrence of sin than if all humanity had been damned for it forever.
The devil wants you to be as happy and prosperous as you can possibly be provided you don't make any difference for Jesus.
At the heart of all sin is a lie. The lie says to all of us in our sin, "The act you are now doing, the desire or attitude you are now feeling is not very bad because there are much worse things, not very bad because everyone else experiences the same things, not very bad because you can't help it, not very bad because there is no God, or, if that won't work, God knows you are but frail and weak and he will tolerate and pity your sin." There are a thousand distortions of the truth which sin brings with it into the human heart, so that Jeremiah cries out, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?" (17:9).
Any trust, except in God, brings about sin. Future Grace (325)
When my thirst for joy and meaning and passion are satisfied by the presence and promises of Christ, the power of sin is broken. Future Grace (335)
Brothers, for the sake of the truth, and for the good of your people, and for the glory of God in the world, don't confuse timid uncertainty with truthful humility. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (166)
I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity. There is a reason for these differences. The violence is make-believe. They don't really mean those bad words. But that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.
Fight for us, O God, that we not drift numb and blind and foolish into vain and empty excitements. Life is too short, too precious, too painful to waste on worldly bubbles that burst. Heaven is too great, hell is too horrible, eternity is too long that we should putter around on the porch of eternity.
The greatest danger of television and movies: helping grow accustomed to the enjoyment of the absence of God.Facebook
God is not a megalomaniac when he makes much of Himself, we would be megalomanicas if we made much of ourselves, because we would be unloving and that is what is infinitely loving for God to do because when he draws our attention to Himself it's like inviting us to a fountain. He is the ultimately satisfying reality in the Universe. reFocus Conference 2010
Grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.
If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.
The Bible does not tell you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home, where you take your vacation, what cell-phone plan to buy, or which brand of orange juice to drink. Or a thousand other choices you must make.
What is necessary is that we have a renewed mind, that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ, and discern what God is calling us to do. This is very different from constantly trying to hear God's voice saying do this and do that. People who try to lead their lives by hearing voices are not in sync with Romans 12:2.http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it
You can scare people toward
God, but you can't scare anybody into loving
him. Fear can be helpful, but is never
decisive.Facebook
We praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise.
All the other revelations of God in Christ are like rays of sun breaking through the clouds. But the death of Christ for sinners was like a bolt of lightning.
If we want to spend our minds to the fullest in knowing God to the fullest so that we can love him to the fullest, this is where we will focus. DG Conference 2010
Headship is the divine calling of a husband to take
primary responsibility for Christlike servant-leadership, protection, and provision in the home.
Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor
and affirm her husband's leadership, and help carry it
through according to her gifts.
Your mind was made to know and love God.
If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.
The New Testament does not present a come-see religion, but a go-tell religion.Let the Nations Be Glad (29)
Every good deed we do in dependence on God does just the opposite of paying Him back; it puts us ever deeper in debt to His grace. And that is exactly where God wants us to be through all eternity. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (33)
If all is well and this world is all that matters, a pastor may become jealous of prosperous people who spend their time in leisure. But if suffering abounds, and if prosperity is a cloak for the true condition of frisky, fun-loving perishing Americans, then being a pastor may be the most important and glorious of all work.
There is very little great preaching today. Most of us are too bent on being good communicators to be good preachers. We are too clever and too funny.
the depth and complexity and ugliness and danger of sin in professing Christians is either minimized—since we are already justified—or psychologized as a symptom of woundedness rather than corruption.https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/foreword-to-overcoming-sin-and-temptation-three-classic-works-by-john-owen
The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.
It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for
heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not
the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we
drink in every night.
God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties
you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with
heaven, if Christ were not there?
Do you feel loved by God because you believe he makes much of you, or because you believe he frees you and empowers you to enjoy making much of him?
My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God's word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes - many times - my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens - and it happens every day in some measure - I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.
One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.
Finishing life to the glory of Christ means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement. It means being so satisfied with all that God promises to be for us in Christ that we are set free from the cravings that create so much emptiness and uselessness in retirement. Instead, knowing that we have an infinitely satisfying and everlasting inheritance in God just over the horizon of life makes us zealous in our few remaining years here to spend ourselves in the sacrifices of love, not the accumulation of comforts.Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 6.
Something really seems wrong to me when parents want to take their children in the most formative years and put them with other children and other adults to shape their attitude and behavior in worship rather than having them right there to shape them. Why wouldn't parents be jealous to model for their children the tremendous value that they put on joyful reverence in the presence of almighty God?http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-children-sit-through-big-church
Of course, it is over their head. It is supposed to be over their head. They are beginners. The English language is over their head as soon as they come out of the womb. But we don't say: Well, let's put them with other children in their own situations and limitations so they can understand a word or two. No. We immerse them in the English language every day that they don't understand 90% of in the hope and expectation that they grow up into joyful use of the English language. Long before children understand fully what is going on in worship and what is sung and what is said, they are absorbing tremendous amounts of what is valuable.http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-children-sit-through-big-church
The greatest stumbling block for children in worship is parents who don't cherish doing that worship, they don't love it, children can feel the difference between duty and delight. They know if Dad loves being here.http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-children-sit-through-big-church
God intends to use human prayers to accomplish his most ultimate and universal purposes.
The possession of money in this world is a test run for eternity. Can you pass the test of faithfulness with your money? Do you use it as a means of proving the worth of God and the joy you have in supporting His cause? Or does the way you use it prove that what you really enjoy is things, not God?
Don't be duped by the gurus of the age. They are here today and gone tomorrow. One enslaving fad follows another. Thirty years from now today's tattoos will not be marks of freedom, but indelible reminders of conformity.Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die (59)
If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself (Wheaton, I: Crossway, 2005), p. 15.
Therefore, fear not. Your adversaries can do no more than God grants. And he will grant you the faith you need. These promises are blood bought and sealed. Gospel promises.http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-logic-of-fearlessness
Stay close to the cross and never cease to be amazed and thankful that you are saved. People who are perpetually and thankfully amazed that God has saved them are not likely to be destroyed by pride.
What you love determines what you feel shame about. If you love for men to make much of you, you will feel shame when they don't. But if you love for men to make much of Christ, then you will feel shame if he is belittled on your account. Don't Waste Your Life (Page 65)
The life we recieve in the new birth is not just new life it's forever life, it's eternal life. That's what we get in the new birth. If You're born again you have a life and an inheritance, imperishable. This should make you the most bold, courageous, risk taking people in the planet.
Perseverance is not the means by which we get God to be for us; it is the effect of the fact that God is already for us. You cannot ever make God be for you by your good works because true Christian good works are the fruit of God's already being for you. (If you get it turned around, you will commit spiritual and eternal suicide.) Stand: A call for the Endurance of the Saints (Page 42) (Bracketed part is from a sermon with the same point)
All sin comes from not putting supreme value on the glory of God-this is the very essence of sin.
Sin is like spiritual leprosy. It deadens your spiritual senses so that you rip your soul to shreds and don't even feel it. Desiring God (Chapter 3)
Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy.
If the pump of love runs dry, it is because the pipe of prayer isn't deep enough. Desiring God (Chapter 6)
The essence of worship lies in our mind's true vision of God and our spirit's true authentic affections for God.
we should be simple in our wording and reject anything like a repetitive mantra that would imply God is aroused by our monotonous incantations. What Jesus Demands from the World(107)
Love is not defined by the response of the loved. A person can be genuinely loved and feel hurt or offended or angered or retaliatory or numb without in any way diminishing the beauty and value of the act of love that hurt him. We know this most clearly from the death of Jesus, the greatest act of love ever performed, because the responses to it covered the range from affection (John 19:27) to fury (Matt. 27:41-42).
Pride is the pursuit of happiness anywhere but in the glory of God
and the good of other people for God's sake. This is the root of all sin.
Don't let the world shape you, so that this [Bible] looks boring. God almighty has spoken! It can't be boring! It can't be boring! We're the problem. Sermon January 10, 2010
The painful things that come into our lives are not described by God as accidental or as out of his control. This would be no comfort. That God cannot stop a germ or a car or a bullet or a demon is not good news; it is not the news of the Bible. God can. And ten thousand times he does. But when he doesn't, he has his reasons. And in Christ Jesus they are all loving. We are taught this sovereignty so that we will drink it in till it saturates our bones. A Sweet and Bitter Providence, 136-37
People who really believe that man must have the ultimate self-determination, can't consistently pray that God would convert unbelieving sinners. Why? Because if they pray for divine influence in a sinner's life they are either praying for a successful influence (which takes away the sinner's ultimate self-determination), or they are praying for an unsuccessful influence (which is not praying for God to convert the sinner). So either you give up praying for God to convert sinners or you give up ultimate human self-determination. Pleasures of God(219)
Christ did not have to die merely because I'm a sinner. He had to die because God in His infinite holiness and justice is angry at the world. We are children of anger. We are justly deserving of the wrath and the anger of God. Lausanne Conference 2010 (Ephesians 3 Talk 2)
Prayer has the wonderful capacity to highlight our emptiness and God's fullness at the same time. It is wonderfully suited to express our inadequacy and God's all-sufficiency. When prayer looks away from our flaws and deficiencies to God for his future grace, he gets the glory he deserves and we get the good that we need. Future Grace (107)
failing to be satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, is the root of all sin. Future Grace (323)
It is astonishing how disinterested people are in the reality of dying. Few things are more certain and universal. The possibilities for joy and misery after you die are trillions of times greater than in the few years on this earth before you die. Yet people give almost all their energies to making this life secure, and almost none to the next. Future Grace (356)
If our disapproval of God's existence is strong enough, our sensory faculties and our rational faculties will not be able to infer that he is there. Think (63)
That is in reality what happens to relativists: in claiming to be too lowly to know the truth, they exalt themselves as supreme arbiter of what they can think and do. This is not humility. This is rooted in deep desire not to be subordinate to the claims of truth. Think (113)
You don't have to be born again to love being guilt-free and pain-free and disease-free and safe and wealthy. All natural men without any spiritual life love these things. But to embrace Jesus as your supreme treasure requires a new nature. No one does this naturally. You must be born again. Think (72)
our thinking should be wholly engaged to do all it can to awaken and express the heartfelt fullness of treasuring God above all things. Think (84)
why is is that even Christians get in God's face about their suffering? I'm going to offend so many people, but we don't have a right to get in God's face for anything! For anything! God can do you no wrong if He tortures you every day for the rest of eternity, He does you no wrong. So you're having a good day right now, because you're not in hell. And that's ABSOLUTELY true!http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/suffering-for-the-gospel-q-a
The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (41)
"Do you feel most loved by God because He makes much of you, or because He frees you to enjoy making much of Him forever?" This is the test of whether our craving for the love of God is a craving for the blood-bought, Spirit wrought capacity to see and glorify God by enjoying Him forever, or whether it is a craving for Him to make us the center and give us thee pleasures of esteeming ourselves. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (16)
Relativism no longer means: your claim to truth is no more valid than mine; but now means: you may not claim to speak the truth. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (159)
Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn't look like one. Alcoholism makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world. Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one. Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength. Alcoholics don't feel welcome in the church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in the church. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (155)
God will hide from you much of your fruit. You will see enough to be assured of his blessing, but not so much as to think you could live without it. For God aims to exalt himself, not the preacher, in this affair of preaching. The Supremacy of God in Preaching (23)
Repenting means experiencing a change of mind that now sees God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience.
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