God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him

so I'm going to invite us here and all of those who are at the North Campus and downtown campus in the south campus to to bow in prayer as we seek the Lord's help the reason father from this tax that you have left me alive this week to minister tonight is for the advancement and joy of the faith of your people so I asked for the miracle to be wrought by your word that thousands of hearts would find more joy in Jesus not in things but in Jesus because of what they hear and I asked that the Holy Spirit would work this very deeply and I can't help but say thank you Lord also that there is a school here that so believed in what I'm about to preach call Bethlem College and Seminary who has this little little leaflet in the worship folder and so I ask that you would prosper this school that I love and believe in so much oh how we want there to be hundreds and hundreds of men and women move through these schools College and Seminary to advance the cause of this message so come and work that now in these services I pray in Jesus name Amen so we're in a series on the 30-year theological trademarks of Bethlehem and the trademark that we take up today is Christian hedonism so let me say right out that Bethlehem has not been built on a slogan hasn't been built on a label the term Christian hedonism is found in none of our official documents it's not in the Constitution it's not in the church covenant it's not in the values booklet it's not in the ten dimensions of church life nevertheless some of us love this statement it is catchy and it's controversial and it's not in the Bible and therefore zero pressure on you to like it just because I did however I will spend the next 45 minutes or so trying to persuade you from the Bible of a massive pervasive truth in the Bible which some of us love to call Christian hedonism here's another preffer Tory remark this has been a painful week at Bethlehem we've lost two adults who are the sons and the daughters so Jack Ahern doesn't wake up on Tuesday morning 20 years old Tracy Brown yesterday soars away at 37 years old from one of our staff members Melvin's daughter we have a little baby on the edge of eternity two of them but one in particular at Children's Hospital now as I speak wondering is that baby still alive so I've asked myself you want to preach on Christian hedonism this week my whole heart says more than ever so you got to get this now that this is not a plaything for me we're talking about death i sat with those two families one of them three hours ago eager to say what I'm about to say in this week at this moment we're not playing games with Christian hedonism it's the heart of my love so the heart of my ministry I believe it's the heart of the Bible four points number one I have to admit to a problem created by theological trademark number two two three four weeks ago whenever it was number two in the outline the solution to the problem created by message number two is Christian hedonism number three CS Lewis and st. Paul provide the basis one from experience and the other from God's authoritative Word for this truth called Christian hedonism and forth it changes everything and I've got eleven example so the this is a tall order for one sermon all my life eleven illustrations big problems being solved glorious solutions being offered all in one sermon so we need to get to work number one in that four-point outline there was a problem created a few weeks ago when I said why did God create the world God created the world for the praise of the glory of His grace supremely manifest in the death of Jesus and embedded into that statement of why God created the world is God's massive and pervasive self exaltation and self-promotion which a lot of people do not like Oprah Winfrey walked away from historic Christianity at age 27 because she heard God is jealous for his glory and it didn't sound loving turn Brad Pitt walked away from his boyhood faith because somebody told him God requires that you consider him best and it sounded like an ego thing to him and on and on the list goes our lease es lewis' eric ries michael Prowse all these people have borne witness I'm out of here because God is self-seeking God exalts himself God is self-promoting he said so three weeks ago in his sermon he made it the main point that's a problem here's the solution this is point number two in the outline Christian hedonism is the answer is the solution to that problem here's what Christian hedonism says I can give it you in one sentence God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him that's the shortest summary of Christian hedonism we have if it's true there is no final conflict between your highest exhilaration and God's highest self glorification none no tension no conflict if that's true in fact not only is there no conflict between your happiness and God's glory but his glory shines brightly the more happy you are if your happiness is in him and since God is the source of greatest happiness since God is the greatest treasure in the world since God is in his glory the most satisfying gift he could give us therefore when he exalts himself sustains his glory spreads it in the world for our praise he is loving us he is kind to us he is merciful to us giving us what will make us most deeply and most permanently happy God is the one being in the universe for whom self exaltation is the highest virtue if you try to exalt yourself you're not loving anybody why because you're distracting them from what will make them happy God you will make them happy you're quite unsatisfactory God will make them happy if you say look at me look at me look at me you distract them from what will save them give them life give them joy but if God exalts himself he's not distracting you he's loving you come to me come to me I'm everything you've ever wanted come to me be satisfied in me and join me treasure me if you say that your legal maniac if God says it is love that's the answer to Brad Pitt that's the answer to Oprah Winfrey that's the answer to the early CS Lewis and Eric Ries and Michael Krause and anybody you've ever met who stumbles over God's self-exaltation God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him God's design to pursue his glory in the world turns out to be an act of love and your duty to glorify Him turns out to be the pursuit of your joy number three in the outline CS Lewis and st. Paul give the basis of this solution the basis of Christian hedonism I picked up a book by CS Lewis in Romans bookstore in 1968 the fall and nothing has been the same ever since the first page of the weight of glory and then later I opened his book reflections on the Psalms page 93 and everything was settled I'm gonna read you that page this is Lewis's answer to his own struggle of why God in demanding that he be praised was not like an old vain woman seeking compliments that was his phrase it seemed it when he read the Psalms where God was continually telling us to praise him he said it just sounded like a a vain old woman seeking compliments and he had to get over them well how did he get over it he got over it with this page the most obvious fact about praise whether of God or anything strangely escaped me I thought of it in terms of compliment or approval or giving of honor I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows in praise unless shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it the world rings with praise lovers praising their mistresses readers their favorite poet Walker's praising the countryside players praising their favorite game praise of whether wines dishes actors motors horses colleges country's historical personages children flowers mountains rare stamps rare Beatles even sometimes politicians and scholars I had not noticed how the humblest and at the same time most balanced and capacious minds praised most while the cranks and the misfits and malcontent praised least I had not noticed either that just as women spontaneously praised whatever they value so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it isn't she lovely wasn't it glorious don't you think that magnificent the psalmist's in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about my whole more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us as regards the supremely valuable what we delight to do what we can't help doing about everything else we value I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment that's the most important sentence in here I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment it is its appointed consummation it's not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another beautiful they are the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in quote change my life I hope it made me a little less cranky cranks and myth misfits don't praise they grumble grumble grumble grumble grumble and healthy people capacious people there's just always seeing things worthy of price well there was God's relentless command that you praise him is a command that you not settle for anything but a completed joy praise is not merely the expression of something you are enjoying but it is the appointed consummation of it and therefore when God says don't settle for anything less of me than to praise me him his breathe your joy all the way up bring it all the way to fulfillment don't settle for ninety percent happiness in his presence is fullness of joy at his right hand are pleasures forevermore Psalm 16:11 in demanding our praise God is demanding the completion of our pleasure that's CS Lewis arguing from experience which has no authority at all now we will go to the book if it says it you better believe it okay if it says so here we are in Philippians the text was read open your Bibles I'm gonna point to words phrases I'm just trying to persuade you it's not John Piper's kick this is in the Bible it's right at the heart of things and it changes everything so we're still in 0.3 but it changes everything that's point four we're getting there so we're gonna read verses 20 and 21 a Philippians chapter 1 this is a dying week at Bethlehem and this is a text about dying in living it is my eager expectation and hope you're with me Philippians 1:28 is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed but that with full courage now as always Christ will be the ESV says honored the word is cause to be seen as great magnified would be a good translation but I'm okay with honor just know it means cause to be seen as great I want with full courage now as always Christ to be seen as great in my body whether by life or by death I want to be seen as great when I live I wanting to be seen as great when I die for to me to live is Christ and to die Paul says the great passion of his life and I hope it's yours this is the text I preached on February 1980 when I candidated for pastoring its church this was my text my eager expectation and hope now as always as that Christ would be seen to be great in my life great in this pulpit great in this church it's my heartbeat for 32 plus years Oh make your name great and when I die may I die well so that off of my deaths can be read Christ is great Christ is great so that's his passion what Christ to be magnified honored seen as great whether I live or whether I die now watch this the relationship between verse 20 and verse 21 is the key to everything I have to say how is Christ going to be magnified going to be seen as great in your life if that's your goal right now if you're sharing with me how much of a failure you feel like me I'm not sure he's looking very great in my life what might I do what might I think what might I feel that's what this connection between verses 20 and 21 is about so he's saying I wanted to be seen as great in my life and great in my death for verse 21 for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain a notice the word life in verse 20 corresponds to the word live in verse 21 and the verb the word death in verse 20 corresponds to die in verse 21 you give the power did now he'd be drawn little circles around the one a little bridge circle around the other so I don't miss that see he's got this pair in front of him in my life and in my death what Christ magnified now I'm gonna explain I'm gonna show how that happens and then he's got death in life over here to explain how it happens we gotta make the connections between how does this work how do you how do you get life to be a Christ exultation and death to be a Christ exaltation and he's explaining that look in my life he's saying for to me to live is Christ what does he mean by that that's the explanation if Christ is your life to live is Christ then Christ will be seen as great by people what does he mean I'm glad he wrote this book I love this book it's just about my favorite book in the Bible not quite Romans but it's right up there because in chapter 3 we want to turn over he tells us what he means I think by Christ is my life to live his Christ verse 8 of chapter 3 I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord so he's saying Christ is more precious to me he's more valuable to me he's more satisfying to me that all that life can give I count everything is lost because of the surpassing it surpasses it's not that the other things are evil I love Joe Rigney sermon but comparatively as joe said comparatively surpassing worth surpassing worth christ becomes his life so i think if we go back to chapter 1 verse 21 and we hear him say to me to live is Christ that's what he means he means in my living I am valuing and treasuring esteeming loving being satisfied with Christ to such a degree that all the other things that would compete with him are as rubbish that's what it is to make Christ look great in your living there's a lifestyle that flows from that a lot of choices are determined by that a lot of attitudes are determined by that and they become more or less visible so Christ is most magnified in Paul's life when Paul in his life is most satisfied with Christ are you with me have you got that that's the that's the basis of my Christian hedonism in life it's even clearer with regard to death so let's go to the death part chapter 1 verse 20 he wants Christ to be magnified in his body by death now the connection with verse 21 because to me to die is gain so Christ is magnified in my dying somehow by my dying being experienced as gain why is it gain well the answer is crystal-clear in verse 23 that's why I would stake my life on these things I don't think there's anything ambiguous about this thing verse 23 second half of the verse my desire is to depart die and be with Christ and if you said to Paul aren't isn't he with you now you say oh of course yes gloriously with me now but oh so much more oh so much better oh so much more intimate oh so many clouds removed no longer through a glass dimly with him soon for charge and beyond anything you can imagine that's what he's after Christ so the reason death is gain is because you get more of Jesus but you lose a lot you lose your family you lose your job you lose your dream retirement if you're young you might lose the dream of marriage you lose your friends you leave them behind you lose pick your favorite bodily pleasure eating sex exercise whatever you lose it you lose it on Tracy lost it Jack lost it you've got family members who lost you and all that God was Christ and what Paul is saying is if that happens to you if you lose everything this world now can offer you leave your body in the grave and your soul goes to be with Christ if you lose all that and feel it and count it gain Christ looks really beautiful in you there it is I can't do any better if that does not persuade you that Christ is most glorified in your life and in your death when he is treasured more than all that life can give and more that all then death can take I don't know what else to say to you to me case is closed God is most glorified in me Christ is most magnified in me when I am most satisfied in life and in death then I am in anything else in Christ you know for people with really sharp ears the solution to the problem from my second message God created the world in order for his praise to abound for His grace supremely manifest in the cross you could already hear the answer couldn't you the answer to the problem is in the problem for those who have ears to hear because what I'm saying is he was seeking his praise in the fullest possible way at the very moment in history when you were getting the most help right cross cross this is glorious I love this message God upholds his glory in the cross while providing you forgiveness God vindicates his own honor in the cross while securing your happiness God magnifies his own worth in the cross by satisfying your soul that's Christian hedonism it's the essence of Christianity the cross is the essence of Christianity God magnifying vindicating upholding his glory while he pours out his justin holy wrath on his son all the while saving his enemies so that they could enjoy him forever and not be incinerated that's an awesome gospel that will preach and it works on street corners over lunches at Pizza Hut with your adult children that are walking away from Jesus that's point number three the basis of Christian hedonism first in the experience of CS Lewis and then in the word of Paul from Philippians chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 now the rest of the sermon is application this if you believe this if this takes a route in your life it changes everything and I'm going to show you 11 illustrations of what it changes we've seen number one it changes the way you experience death they needed to be number one this week if you want to make Christ look great in your dying there's no big performance requirement there's no big achievement for this helpless person with tubes everywhere in their face and throat there's no heroic sacrifice to be made there is simply a childlike laying yourself in the arms of the one who makes the loss of everything gain that's not hard to do except for sin just lay yourself in the arms of the one who died so that the loss of everything would be gained that's that's not hard it's just impossible for sinners who love things more than Jesus humans more than Jesus the great human that's number one changes everything about death number two Christian hedonism changes how we think about conversion Matthew 13:44 the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up and then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field what is becoming a Christian becoming a Christian is not only believing truth it's finding a treasure that's what it means to become a Christian you find the treasure and if you find the treasure that is worth your selling everything to have it's the greatest treasure imaginable so have you found him I'm not asking to be gone to church signed a card pray to prayer believe doctrines I'm saying have you found him are you explosively ready to let it all go to have him or he's just marginal and everything in here is central then maybe you're not a Christian to to be converted is to find Christ as a treasure number three it changes everything Christian hedonism changes everything about the good fight of faith force Timothy 6:12 John 1:12 John said to as many as received him to those who believed in his name he gave the power to become the children of God so believing is a receiving got that - as many as received him that is who believed in his name so believing Jesus savingly is a receiving of him and I would just ask receiving him as what and I would say everything he is the most valuable treasure in the world that's what it means to fight the fight of faith namely to continually recognize see savor receive Jesus is more valuable Jesus is more valuable which to put it simply the fight of faith is the fight for joy I get up every morning and fight that fight every morning that's my that's my war am i wanting to look at Twitter before I look at Jesus sounds stupid that's how stupid sin yes so every morning there's war in the Piper household it's not against my family it's against me and my old man that I have to reckon dead over and over again and pray that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on me my eyes would be open I would see and savor Christ as supreme that's war that's called the life of faith faith is seeing savoring the supreme treasure of Christ that's number three number four Christian hedonism changes our combat with evil Jeremiah 2:13 here's the Christian hedonist definition of evil my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and of Qun out for themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water what's evil the suicidal preference for empty wells over the river of delights flowing from heaven that's evil so my battle against evil is not to constantly say no no no bad bad bad bad what there's no power in that the power of the flesh coming at you the power the devil coming at you and you're gonna screw up your willpower and make that the victory not you're not one thing will give you the victory faith is the victory that overcomes the world and faith is a being satisfied with all that God is first in Jesus you're gonna stoke that engine every morning so that the evil that are clawed at you lose their fangs you can't have me I've seen Jesus this morning lust you can't have me greed you can't have me fear of man you can't have me bitterness and anger you can't have me I've seen Jesus this morning the battle against evil is totally transformed by Christian Eden ISM number we're in my five hell you think about very differently the way to get to heaven is to embrace Jesus as the source of your greatest joy therefore hell is a place of suffering and of eternal unhappiness for people who refuse to be happy in the triune God hell is a place for people who refuse to be happy in the triune God and so they get eternal unhappiness number six Christian hedonism takes away or changes entirely how you understand self-denial oh there is self-denial in the Christian life if you think Christian hedonism rules out self-denial you're not paying attention Jesus said if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me I'm gonna follow Jesus got to deny yourself got to take up a electric chair a neusel inching rope die with Jesus crucified with Christ nobody can be a Christian without self-denial only Christian hedonism now shows us the biblical truth that you deny yourself the wealth of the world to have the wealth of being with Christ you deny yourself the security and safety of the world to have the solid secure fellowship of Jesus you deny yourself the fame of the world to have your name written in the book of life and to enjoy God's approval you deny yourself the short unsatisfying fleeting pleasures of Egypt in order to have the eternal reward of God in heaven there is no such thing as ultimate self-denial if you believed in ultimate self-denial you'd be spitting in God's face as he offers himself to you as pleasures forevermore self-denial is the cutting off of your hand as it reaches for non God the gouging out of your eye as you attempt to savor what will kill you in the end sin of course their self-denial oh there's no ultimate self-denial everything is yours Christian's whether Paul or Cephas or Apollo's of the world are life or death or anything it's all yours and you are Christ and Christ is God just give it time like death would be a good stopping place for self-denial and after that never again that's an awesome thought number seven Christian hedonism changes everything about the way we handle our money acts 20:35 it is more blessed more happy to give than to receive second Corinthians 9:7 each one must do as he has decided in his own heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful Giver he doesn't love your begrudging giving keep it for goodness sakes but if you've learned from christian hedonism that your joy in Jesus will expand as you let Goods and kindred go for the cause of the kingdom Oh make your day let it go oh what a difference in the life of a Christian hedonist who has heard the glorious sound it is more blessed to give than to receive and God loves a cheerful Giver he's just after his joy as he keeps his life simple and pours himself out for the needy number eight Christian hedonism changes the way we do and think about corporate worship has been good to us in these years corporate worship is the collective act of a people glorifying God making God look great by their voices and their prayers and and the hearing of the word of God preaching of the truth of that God corporate worship is a collective making God look great and God is most glorified in a corporate gathering when those people are more satisfied in God than anything else therefore all these instrumentalists have one main task Chuck and and Dan and Jason have one main task open the rivers of heaven and Piper spread a banquet for this people and when they are done drinking and eating you better say to God that's called praise and it makes much of him none of this beautiful come to give stuff I want you to come starved to get God nothing glorifies God more in worship there are hungry people saying feed me Chuck with your music and your lyrics feed me John Jason with your truth from God's Holy Word don't let me walk out of here hungry I am so weak I need food feed me and as it goes into your ear and into your heart and the Holy Spirit uses it praises our ascending and God is being glorified by you being satisfied in him it changes everything about corporate worship number nine Christian hedonism changes everything about disability and weakness and how you think about it stunningly paradoxically jesus said to the thorn pierced Apostle Paul my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your painful weakness really I'm inside Paul's head now really this thorn that hurts so bad this weakness I feel you telling me Jesus that in the making of your grace sufficient for me in that disability in that weakness in that Pearson espouse is more manifest now what conclusion would you draw if you were Paul having said in Philippians 1 20 my eager expectation is that Christ would be magnified in my life I want Christ to be magnified and Jesus just told you my power is magnified in your weakness what would you say what would you respond and I'll read you what he responded he responded like a Christian hedonist this is why I am one I'm not telling him he's telling me therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me what a man what a crazy man I'm crazy contrary to everything man called a Christian called a Christian okay you tell me that your power is gonna look bigger in my suffering rather than my healing I'll embrace embrace it that has taken such deep root in this church the stories that come to me for the way you handle your suffering has brought me such deep deep pastoral gratification thank you number 10 Christian hedonism changes the meaning of love Paul said of the Macedonians this he said it to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 8 - in a severe test of affliction and their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part and then in verse 8 he calls that love the generosity that's overflowing no listen get those three phrases in a severe test of affliction and in extreme poverty their abundance of joy overflowed in love that's all I live for for you that's all I want from you I don't expect your afflictions to go away I expect them to get worse God promised more persecutions than more godly you are I don't expect your life to get better I expect you all to die and most of you will die slow and painful it's gonna get worse so I got no promises for you that life's going to get better that's the affliction and then in extreme poverty this is not a prosperity church Christian hedonism doesn't equal prosperity gospel I hate the prosperity gospel I love Christian hedonism in in extreme poverty okay so now you got affliction and poverty you're not a poor person this room probably comparatively speaking but if it were to come would this happen abundant joy which can't be based on the absence of affliction and can't be based on the presence of money abundance of joy where in Jesus is overflowing in love God do that here do it here help me to love my neighbors and more let me to love the lost more make my theology take root in my life more I hope you don't feel spanked I'm just really dealing with John Piper here I'm the preacher I'm gonna be called to account for obeying this more than any of you right at the Judgment Day let not many of you become teachers because you would judge more strictly you stood up in front of those people and gave them eleven ways this works and here's what you did scary thing to be a preacher but if you could just get this what an amazing beautiful people you would be so changes the way we think about love love here's my definition of love Christian hedonist definition of love love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others that's my definition of love one more you know be done number 11 it changes ministry Christian hedonism changes ministry your ministry from my ministry mine in particular here's one of my favorite verses about ministry 2nd Corinthians 1:20 for Paul talking I'm talking not that we lord it over your face can I apply to you not that i lord it over your face best for him but we are workers with you or your joy Paul lived for the joy of his churches and I live for your joy and if I don't succeed I'm sorry but you know what I'm after supreme satisfaction in Jesus nothing else above that and that so high so full that if God takes everything away you call it gay I'm done sum it up like this that's why that second Corinthians 124 that's why God created you for your joy in him and that's why Christ died for you for your joy in him that's why all the pastor's that this church do what they do for your joy in him and why would God create you for joy in him and why would Christ died for you to have joy in him and why would we minister for you to have joy in him God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him we're after the glory of God the Father in heaven there's my life there's what I think the heart of the Bible is that's one of the most important theological trademarks of this church and I commend it now by your grace to your people for their serious not only reflection but earnest heart crying prayer that you would work this in us and take us down deep into Jesus his name I pray amen you

Channel: Desiring God

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Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism

Id: eE-09ut2pzw

Length: 51min 57sec (3117 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2015