Podcasts about john piper god

A few weeks ago, my 7-year-old informed me that he wanted to be 8 — but not any older than that. “Buddy, why don't you want to be any older than that?” I asked. “Well, because when you get old, you die.” Fair enough. 8 seemed safe and exciting enough, I guess (he has some 8-year-olds in his class), but 9 . . . now 9 was a different story. Who knows what might happen then? Better stick with 8. It's a sobering thing, isn't it, to watch your children begin to wrestle with a reality like death and then to force you, as a dad or mom, to try and explain something like death. I think our verses this morning are a great help to dads and moms and teenagers and twenty-somethings and sixty-somethings in answering the biggest questions we ever ask. What's going to happen when we die? What does it mean to really live?A couple years ago, on June 28, 2021, my then 64-year-old dad had a heart attack. I'll never forget the moments I spent beside his hospital bed that week, waiting for quadruple bypass surgery. I felt my own mortality, watching the strongest man I'd ever known now fighting for his life. I know some of you have experienced this. When you're growing up, Dad is the embodiment of strength, almost immortal. I mean what can't Dad do? A toy breaks? Oh Dad'll fix it. Want to know what makes an airplane fly? Dad will know that. My 3-year-old's been worried that skunks are going to get into her room at night (longer story there), but I've said to her, “Honey, I promise Daddy won't let any skunks in your room.” And she believes me! Because I'm Daddy.And then dads grow older and their arteries fail — or they get really sick, or their minds begin to go. Slowly, they're a little less superhero, and a little more human. And in the process, we realize just how human we are.By God's grace, my dad's doing really well, but I thought of him leading up to this message because our conversations over these last couple years (one in particular) remind me of these verses. He told me that's he more aware than ever that every day he has is a day he's been given for Christ, that however many days he has left — whether hundreds or thousands or just one — he wants them to honor Jesus. My dad came close enough to death to be able to remind his son how to live.And that's what we have in Philippians 1:19–26: We have a man, a spiritual father, who has come close enough to death that he's able to tell us (whether we're 8 or 38 or 68) how to live and die well.The Happy, Driving PassionAs we've learned over the last several weeks, Paul wrote this letter from prison in Rome. The situation's serious enough that his friends in Philippi are worried if they'll ever see him again. And on top of the dangers and hardships of his imprisonment, he had enemies (even in the church) trying to make things even worse for him. I don't want it to be lost on us over these next few months in Philippians that the most joy-filled letter in the New Testament was written in horrible circumstances. That tells us something, doesn't it, about how much joy we can expect to experience even on our hardest days. Look how joyful he is even now, even in prison! And they tell us about how much we can still help others enjoy Jesus — even on our hardest days.As Pastor Jonathan showed us last week, Paul responds to all of this — imprisonment, mistreatment, betrayal — in an otherworldly way, because he had a different passion than the world. And what was that passion? The glory of God magnified through the advance of the gospel. That passion is why he can rejoice while his enemies preach Christ (verses 15–18). That's why he can rejoice even while he sits in prison (verses 12–14). That's why he prays like he does, verses 9–11. That passion is why his love for these people runs deeper and richer than many of our relationships (verses 3–8). And now, in our verses this morning, he's going to tell us about that passion. He leans in, after all of that, as if to say, Do you want the secret? “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”What Kind of Deliverance?Our passage begins in verse 19: “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance…” Now, right away, what kind of deliverance do you think he's talking about? What's he going to be delivered from? Is he talking about deliverance from prison (which is what we probably assume) or is he talking about some other kind of deliverance?Let's keep reading: “[I know that this will turn out for my deliverance,] as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.” Why do I expect that all of this will turn out for my deliverance? He doesn't go on to talk about judges changing their minds, or him developing some good will with the jailers, or about a large group of Christians putting together a petition. No, he says, I'm confident this will turn out for my deliverance because I'm confident that, whether I live or die, Christ will be honored in me. That phrase — “whether by life or by death” — that's the biggest reason I don't think he's talking mainly about being delivered from prison. He can't die in prison and be delivered from prison. I might die here in prison, he's saying, but I'll still be delivered. Even if I'm never released from these chains, I'll still be set free. How could that be? How could he be delivered without being delivered? I think that question's massively relevant for us, because some of you are praying for deliverance right now. Not from prison (because you're here) — but what you're suffering might feel worse than prison some days. Intense, prolonged conflict with someone you love. Hostility where you work. Cancer. A child who's walked away from the faith — and maybe from you. . . . By the end of this sermon, I'm praying that you'll be able to say, to anyone who cares about you: “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this pain, this conflict, this cancer will turn out for my deliverance” — not mainly because the pain might finally let up in this life, or because the relationship will necessarily get better, or because the cancer will go into remission, but because I believe my life, and my suffering, and even my death will say something true and beautiful and loud about how much Jesus means to me. About how much he's done for me. About how much I'm dying to go and spend the rest of my life with him. What kind of deliverance is Paul expecting? Not mainly deliverance from prison (although, as we'll see, he clearly expects that too). No, deliverance from spiritual ruin, from the intense temptations that come with suffering, from walking away from Christ. I'm confident I will be delivered, he says, because I'm confident that, whether I live or die, Christ will look great — and that's all I really want. “I count everything as loss,” he'll say in chapter 3, “because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” That's what deliverance looks like, the most important kind of deliverance, the kind we all need, especially when suffering comes. These next verses, then, are a mural of the delivered life — the life freed from self and sin and death, and filled with Jesus. Again, they teach us how to live and die well: “I know that Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death…” Verse 21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We know that verse, and we think we get it — but do we really get it? Could you explain it to a 7-year-old? These next verses help us see both sides of this precious, life-altering (and death-altering) verse.To Die Is GainLet's start with death, though, with the second half of the verse: “[I know] that Christ will be honored in my body . . . by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” How is Christ honored in a dying person's body? Our death honors Christ, he says, when we begin to see our death not as loss — not as the end, not as defeat, not ultimately as a tragedy — but as gain.So how could Paul look at death, even a death alone in horrible circumstances, and see victory, see reward? The next verses take us deeper. Beginning now in verse 22: “If I am to live in the flesh, [to live is Christ] that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Now, of course, Paul doesn't really get to choose. “Which of you by being anxious,” Jesus asks, “can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Luke 12:25). Paul's not actually choosing life or death here; he's just letting us see what he wants. “I am hard pressed between the two,” he says. A big part of me wants to stay and live a little longer here with you (and we'll see why in a minute), but if I'm honest, I'd rather go home. I'm so ready to feel my last aches and pains, to have my last hard conversations, to wipe away my last tears — more than anything, though, I'm so ready to finally, at last, to see him, to set aside this old, foggy mirror and look at him face to face: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace in the flesh — the seeable, huggable, high-five-able God. To get to know him, to know Jesus, as well as he's known me all these years, 1 Corinthians 13:12. Oh how badly I want to stay, Paul's saying, and help you see more clearly, and understand more deeply, and love more fully, and obey more joyfully, but it will be so much better for me if this apostle left you (for now) and went on to be a kindergartner, a beginner, in glory.Notice, he doesn't diminish the goodness of this earthly life. From an earthly perspective, Paul's life wasn't all that great (it was horrible) when he wrote these verses — and he still wanted to stay. God has filled this broken, sinful world with people and pleasures and experiences — with really good gifts — that hint at heaven and help us long for heaven. I have three small kids — there are moments every week where I stop and think, I just want this to last forever. (There are plenty of other moments when I think, When will this ever end? But there are so many moments I want to hold onto.) When we tickle them and they giggle until they cry. When they say certain words really wrong. When they learn how to do something for the first time, and then do that same thing a thousand times every day for a week. When they come, snuggle up next to you, and tell you they love you for no reason at all. Having a Philippians 1:21 heart doesn't mean you despise the God-given joys and giggles of life on earth — it means you realize that another life's coming, another world, one that's better than this one, even at its best. And not better by a little, but better by far. “My desire is to depart and be with Christ,” verse 23, “for that is far better.”And what's the better? It's not weeks without work, or years without taxes. It's not endless tee times on the golf course or more girls nights with your best friends. It's not your favorite foods at your favorite restaurants and you never have to wait or pay. . . (I for one, by the way, believe all of that will happen in heaven, and that it's all going to be better than we can even begin to think or imagine. Believe me, nothing you enjoy here is going to get worse in heaven.) He tells us what the best better will be, though, in the same verse: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” He puts a face to the gain. Death, for believers, is better than life because it's death that finally gives us Christ — all of Christ, with all our senses, meeting all our needs and satisfying all our lingering, gnawing desires. He is our gain.In college, I read a paragraph that I'll never forget. It still haunts me, in the very best way. It goes like this: Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. (God Is the Gospel, 47) I still remember where I was on campus when I read that chapter. It felt like I had stumbled into a land I had never seen before, an ocean I'd never sailed before, a favorite meal I'd never tasted before. I really believe those were the moments when God became heaven for me. When he was no longer the God who makes heaven, or who lets sinners like me into heaven, but that he himself is what makes heaven heaven — that he would always be (even after thousands and thousands of years) the best part of living there. This Jesus is not just the only way to heaven; he really is what makes heaven worth wanting. He is the great meal. He's the ocean. He is the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price. And if that's true — if we really think that way — how awesome will he look when we die? While everyone around us in the hospital clings to the last days they have here — while they scramble to try and make it to a couple more things on their “bucket lists” — we're going to be the really strange people who have this deep and abiding peace, who talk about how much better life's about to get, who feel free to spend the last days and hours we have on other people and their needs, who still smile even through horrible pain. We're going to be the strange and beautiful people who use our last breaths — on the hospital bed, in hospice care, covered in wires and monitors — to sing. When we die like that, what will that say about Jesus? You know if you've ever seen a saint die well. In those moments, Jesus looks more valuable than anything life could ever give — or that death could ever take. Don't you want to die like that?As we turn to the first half of verse 21, then, I want us to see the relationship between these two phrases: “To live is Christ” and “to die is gain.” We're about to see what “to live is Christ” means as a way of life — what a strange person like this does with the weeks and months and years they have. But before we even get to that, to the kinds of things they do, we're already seeing who they are — we're seeing their heart, their passion. You see, the kind of person who honors Christ with their life will always be the kind of person who sees death as better than this life. They glorify God with their life because they want Jesus more than life. I first learned this, like many of you, from John Piper: “God is most glorified in us — in life and death, in joys and sorrows, in marriage and parenting and singleness — when we are most satisfied in him.” God will be most glorified in our lives when death is gain, when we know that the day we die will be the greatest day we've ever lived — yet.To Live Is ChristNow, in the next couple verses, he turns to explain “to live is Christ.” How does he explain that? He's already said, verse 22, “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” Fruitful labor, that's the first part of our answer. But what does “fruitful labor” actually mean? He goes on to tell us in verses 24–26: “[My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.] But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. It would be better, far better, to go and be with Jesus, but I'm convinced it's more necessary, for now, that I stay and keep laboring among you.” And what is the labor? What does he need to stay and do for them? “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith. . . .” The fruitful labor Paul stays to do is to work for others' progress and joy in the faith. He stays to help them grow in their faith in Jesus (progress), and to help them find greater joy in that faith. If we live for another day or month or year, it's because someone needs help believing in and enjoying Jesus. That's how Paul thinks about his life — and yours. This is why you're alive: to help someone else keep believing in Jesus. Do you think about your life that way? Do you look at your days, or weeks, or decades of life as a gift God has given you to give other people God? To live is Christ — to hold up Christ for one another.But what does it really mean, practically, to live for someone else's “progress and joy in the faith”? Does Paul give us any hints about we're supposed to actually do? He gives us lots of hints. His letters are filled with this kind of life. But we'll limit ourselves to just Philippians for now. What does it look like to live for one another's “progress and joy in the faith”?It looks like praying for one another, and especially for each other's souls (Philippians 1:9–11).It looks like calling one another to obey Christ, to live a life worthy of the gospel (Philippians 1:27). It looks like meeting practical needs for one another, like this church did for Paul (Philippians 4:14).It looks like honoring one another, like Paul honors Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:29). Sometimes it looks like warning one another: “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh” (Philippians 3:2).It looks like reconciling believers with one another when there's conflict or division, like Paul does in Philippians 4:2: “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.”It looks like reminding one another of heaven: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20–21).It looks like, get this, just having more conversations about Jesus.Any of you can do all those things. These aren't things apostles do, or even things pastors do; these are things Christians get to do for one another. We live, for however long we live, for one another's progress and joy in the faith — to live is Christ.Paul strikes one more note here, in verse 26: “I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.” If I live, he's saying, I want to give more reasons to worship Jesus — and not just a few reasons, but plenty of reasons (“so that in me you may ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus”). Paul's not living for a bare-minimum Christianity, a bare-minimum spiritual influence on others. No, day by day, he wants to pile on the reasons, as many as he possibly can, for those he knows and loves to trust and enjoy Jesus. So, when God brings someone into your life, are they better off spiritually for being there? Are they a lot better off spiritually for being there? What if you started looking at your relationships — family, community group and life group, neighbors, co-workers, friends — and tried to give them ample cause to love and glorify Jesus? How much more spiritual good could you do? How might the good you do then multiply through them into all of their relationships?Again, notice he says, “I am hard pressed between the two.” So even though to depart and Christ is far better, Paul really does want both. It's gain to die, no question, but it's not loss to stay and live for Christ. To live for Jesus, despite how much it cost him, despite how little fruit he saw at times, despite the fact that he might live the rest of his life in prison — to live for Jesus was its own reward. Therefore he could gladly say, To die is gain for me, and to live is Christ for you, my joy and my crown.Because You Pray for MeBefore we close, then, I want to go back briefly to the beginning of our passage and look at how this kind of Christ-honoring life and this kind of Christ-honoring death happens. If God delivers us from walking away from Christ, from giving into temptation, from slowly drifting into worldliness, if he helps us honor Christ until the very end, how does that happen? Where do we get the strength and focus we need to keep going? Paul gives us two quick glimpses (so quick we might completely miss them), but I think they're too good to pass over as a church. You've already heard these verses, but we need to hear them one more time: “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. . .” Why is Paul so confident that he's going to make it to the end, that he'll keep honoring Christ, even in prison, even under persecution, even if it costs him his life? What does he say? Because you're praying for me.Do you ever pray like this church prayed for Paul? Does anyone pray like this for you? If we commit to praying like this for one another, Cities Church, we'll be able to say things like we heard Paul say in verse 6: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” — because we've prayed for you. I know you'll honor Christ, whatever happens to you, because we've prayed for you. Or, verse 19, “I know this horrible circumstance will turn out for my deliverance” — because you prayed for me. Prison can't overcome these kinds of prayers. Cancer can't overcome these kinds of prayers. All the armies in the world couldn't overcome prayers like these.Why? Because God answers prayers like these. . . . And he doesn't answer from afar. No, he comes and helps us from inside of us, by his Spirit (“through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”). His Spirit lives within us. And as he does, his strength becomes our strength, his peace becomes our peace, his love becomes our love. By the Spirit, right now, in whatever callings each of you have been given, you have everything you could possibly need to honor Christ — whether by life or by death — because that Christ lives in you. He's going to help you.

John Piper | God will have worshipers from every nation on earth. He will win them, and do so through us. We have only to tell them.

In love, you are chosen: If you've come to Jesus, you can know for sure that you were chosen. You weren't chosen because you came; you came because you were chosen. If you believe, you know for sure you were chosen. You weren't chosen because you believed; you believed because you were chosen. God, in his mercy and LOVE, chose you . . . not because of anything in YOU, you were dead in your sins, and still, he chose you, he woke you up into new life in Christ. And the REASON he did that, was because of the great love with which he loved you. His divine love was (and still is) the deepest and ultimate basis of his choosing people to belong to him. His loving you is rooting in his choosing you. His choosing you is rooted in his loving you. “This truth should fill you with both a sense of utter unworthiness and utter amazement that God took delight in making you his own. . . that in love, God overcame the rebellion in your heart of stone and transformed it into a heart of faith.” John Piper God has called us OUT of the darkness of the world into the marvelous light, he sets us apart, claims us as his people, and gives us a new identity in him (his chosen people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation), and he does all this out of the great love with which he loved us (1 Peter 2: 9-10). In love, you receive unimaginable blessings (Ephesians 1: 3-14): You are adopted into his family (you are his daughter, and he is your Father), you are an heir of the Kingdom, where there is an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for you, you are redeemed and fully forgiven, bought with the precious blood of Christ, and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit, secure in his eternal love. God cannot stop loving you. Once he decided to set his redeeming, electing love on you, nothing can separate you from it. If you belong to Christ today, you belong to him forever. In love, you are pursued: Even though you are chosen, you belong, and you are secure in his love, God continues to pursue you, and delights to pursue you. God's pursuit of us is perhaps one of the most powerful confirmations of his love for us. You were chosen to enter into relationship with God in order to glorify him, praise him, follow him, make him known . . . and also to be sanctified, made holy in the conformity of Christ. You were certainly not called because you're holy, you were called in order to become holy, to be transformed from one degree of glory to another. "The entire Bible is a story of God pursuing us. From the very beginning of the Bible to today, God has been pursuing relationship with us because of his love for us.” Tim Keller The parables in Luke 15 are beautiful pictures of God's pursuing, welcoming love for us. Who am I that the highest King would welcome me? I am a child of God, a daughter of the one true King, chosen, treasured, pursued . . bought by the precious blood of Christ. I am his, and he is mine. Forever.

On episode 138 of the Adorned Podcast we discuss 1 Peter 4:12-19. Peter is continuing to encourage the church in what it looks like to live a holy life and in this section he is speaking specifically to times of suffering. He is reminding us that because of the brokenness of the world there will be suffering, but as believers we will never have to walk through those seasons alone! Quotes: “Keep on rejoicing because your suffering as a Christian is an evidence of your union with Christ.” -John Piper “God hasn't promised that His children won't go into the valley of the shadow of death. He promised that we will never go alone.” -R.C. Sproul “Believers pass through the testing fire of God's judgment — not because he hates us, but because he loves us and wills our purity. God hates sin so much and loves his children so much that he will spare us no pain to rid us of what he hates.” John Piper Adorned Resource List *The beautiful music heard on today's episode is by Katie Cobbs*

John Piper | God plans to win the world with singing. Here are five connections between our joy-filled worship and the finishing of the Great Commission.

TITLE: Preparing our hearts for the lockdown TEXT: Proverbs 18:1 Preparing our hearts for the lockdown… 1 – BEING ISOLATED IS DANGEROUS – PROVERBS 18:1 Isolation is dangerous for at least 2 reasons: 1A. It ultimately flows from selfishness – Proverbs 18:1a 1B. It inevitably fuels bad choices – Proverbs 18:1b Proverbs 15:22 – “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” 2 – BEING TOGETHER IS ESSENTIAL – SELECTED VERSES Being together is essential because it’s… 2A. Commanded – Hebrews 10:25 Hebrews 10:24-25 – “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” John Piper – “God’s commandments are for our good. Everything he tells us to do is good for us. God does not need our service to improve his attitude or his ability. So he doesn’t tell us to do things because he has needs, but because we have needs.” 2B. Normal – 1 Corinthians 12:14-15 1 Corinthians 12:14-15 - “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body.” 2C. Modeled – Acts 2:42,46 Acts 2:42, 46 – “And they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers….And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…” 2D. Wise - Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 – “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

This week's spotlight sermon is from John Piper: God's Passion for His Glory. This is from our sermon collection, 100 Greatest Sermons Every Christian Should Hear Click here to Listen! Join us on Facebook!  Click here to “Like” our page and see our latest additions!  As always, if you want to contact Paul Carmody you can […] The post John Piper: God's Passion for His Glory appeared first on More Of God Please.

John Piper | God calls us to live in a way that says Jesus's blood is infinitely valuable. In fifteen minutes, John Piper tells us how.

John Piper | God calls each one of us to love him with all our minds. The hard work of thinking rightly honors him and loves our neighbors when our minds move to action.

John Piper | God promises unimaginable blessings to every one of his children – if we have the courage to walk with Jesus through suffering.

John Piper | God promises innumerable benefits to all who trust in him. But those gifts aren't an end in themselves. Our greatest joy is God himself.

John Piper | God's glory and our gladness do not have to be at odds, but are in fact one and the same pursuit. John Piper demonstrates how with the help of Jonathan Edwards.

John Piper | God opens his arms to both prodigals and Pharisees — to those who know they don't deserve mercy, and those who have worked for mercy their whole life.

John Piper | God is ransoming a people for himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Therefore, missions is a call to the people groups of the world, not just the countries of the world.

John Piper | God's design to pursue his own glory turns out to be love. And our duty to pursue God's glory turns out to be a quest for joy.

John Piper | God is concerned with our purity of faith, not race. He never forbids marriage between ethnicities, but between believer and unbeliever.

John Piper | God will bring our feelings, thoughts, and actions into conformity to his infinitely satisfying worth. If we are in Christ, it is as good as done.

John Piper | God created and sustains everything in this universe to display his glorious grace in Jesus.

John Piper | God designed his church so that her members endure in belief by giving and receiving faith-sustaining words of life.

John Piper | God equips his people with everything we need to serve him. And we will do even greater works than Jesus himself.

John Piper | God is supreme not only in the ministry of the church, but also in the planting and watering, and in causing faith and giving the growth.

John Piper | God takes people from every racial and ethnic bloodline and leads by the gospel us to the one bloodline of Jesus Christ.

John Piper | God is sovereign not only over our belief, but also our unbelief. He plans both for his glory in all things.

John Piper | God making much of God, in communicating his glory to our minds and hearts, is the greatest act of love toward us.

John Piper | God invites everyone to embrace the good news of Jesus. And he uses his people to proclaim and spread the message.

John Piper | God made us to live life together. We can only flourish with brothers and sisters in Christ at our side.

John Piper | God does not mainly love us in this life by sparing us from suffering. He mainly loves us by giving us more of himself and his glory.

John Piper | God pursues his own praise, which is the greatest act of love not because he won't be God until he gets it, but because we won't be happy until we give it.

John Piper | God is honored in our affections when our affections are rooted in knowledge of the truth.

John Piper | God's passion for his glory is not egomania but love, and it is manifested in his acts of predestination, creation, incarnation, propitiation, sanctification, and consummation.

John Piper | God owns us and has determined what the unwasted life is: living and acting in such a way that displays the supreme value of Christ.

John Piper | God blesses us in order that we might be a blessing for the sake of the nations.

John Piper | God won't ever let you be the ultimate source of your own joy. Only God himself can possibly bear the weight of the happiness he has prepared for you.

John Piper | God's love for his people is so rich and full that they need the Holy Spirit's help to really feel it.

John Piper | God's children are immensely precious to him, and he ensures that their preciousness to him does not become their god, but that he is their God.

John Piper | God loves us best when he loves himself most. And in his loving glorification, we find imperishable joy.

John Piper | God's passion for his own glory is the great ballast not only for global missions, but also for our very own souls.

John Piper | God's sovereignty over Satan and all the suffering he causes can be seen through his ultimate control of natural disasters, diseases, animals, temptation, spiritual blindness, and spiritual captivity.

John Piper | God is sovereign over suffering, including all the suffering that Satan is able to inflict upon people.

John Piper | God's command to us to meet with and encourage each other is for our happiness.

John Piper | God will use everything — even the tragedies of our lives — to shine a bright light on the goodness and glory of Jesus Christ.

John Piper | God's ultimate goal is to uphold and display his glory for the maximum enjoyment of his redeemed church.

John Piper | God's glory shines throughout his word and in the world. To ignore it is to tragically miss the most beautiful and joyful reality in the universe.

John Piper | God is infinitely able to know the best possible outcome of any situation and then achieve it.

John Piper | God uses his gospel to strengthen believers so that they will persevere in faith and draw all attention to his glory.

John Piper | God's eternal promises don't just help us gain eternal perspective, but actually empowers us to walk in Spirit-led obedience today.

John Piper | God will not lead you down a pointless path, but to a holy ambition that meets great need for the glory of Jesus.

John Piper | God accomplishes his purposes through our prayers. He's completely sovereign, but he has determined to use us.

John Piper | God does everything for his glory. Therefore, you don't need health, wealth, or prosperity in order to be happy.

John Piper | God's wrath is more horrifying than we can ever imagine, but he will pardon any who take refuge in the shelter Jesus provides.