John Piper Q & A with Andy Prime | Sing Scotland 2019

what a bunch of empties we say regularly 20 schemes is proof that God uses the weak things and the very foolish things to shame the wise and is strong 20 schemes exist to bring the light of the gospel to Scotland's most deprived areas if you are interested in that if you want to know more if you'd like to pray for us if you'd like to give financially to us if you would like to come and join us and then come and speak to one of the guys one of the girls who are here today in a t-shirt if you want to give specifically you can do that by texting that number that's on the screen or gone to that web address but we would love you to partner in the Gospel as we seek to take the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to those in our own nation that are deprived of it and so we'd love you to partner with us in some ways let me on your behalf say thank you to John Tukey themto mace for what they've shared with us so far today it's probably what John just explained in there Oh polite applause probably worth explaining that phrases like off the bat probably came from us first probably right we're all her than you are but a good opportunity now just to ask you some questions there's a few that come in that flow off the back of your sermon or your apt at thing so you've walked through apt opportunity for trust for what it looks like for a preacher two minutes beforehand there's a couple of questions that are more about that in our daily walk with Christ so let me read to what is your daily walk of delight in Christ look like how do you keep the spiritual disciplines from turning to drudgery instead of delight so that's a personal one and then one that says how do you spend time seeking the Lord with your wife what about family worship in the home when your children were younger so maybe you could speak to that hello button and then we'll go home right yeah correct well the first thing that comes to my mind with regard to keeping my own encounter with the Lord fresh and vital is another acronym you know acronyms are evidence of a person's weakness and shrewdness like look I I owe you su you have I owe you I'm sure and we owe us so what I do I mean I read my Bible I probably haven't missed five days in 40 years of reading my Bible I don't know I I do not miss I mean I I read my Bible every day because I am desperate for that not to happen and I think faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and that's true every day and so what do you do if you go to your Bible and you are dead I mean you're blank there are no affections there's no you just there by discipline what do you do and I do IOUs so and these are all from the Psalms I wanted to learn how to pray from the Bible I incline my heart to your testimonies and not to get in gain some one 1936 incline my heart to your testimonies Oh open my eyes that I may behold wonders out of your word someone 19 verse 18 you unite my heart to fear your name Psalm 86 11 and s satisfied me in the morning with your steadfast love that I may rejoice and be glad in you all my days some ninety verse 14 though that it that's what I whoever asked that question be encouraged that every single Christian human being has seasons of languishing affections seasons when we are low in our temperature when we ought to be white-hot and therefore every day is a battle to be awakened and quickened and in love again with the word and with Jesus and I have found that pleading with him the way the psalmist's pled with him incline my heart opened my eyes that's Paul and unites my heart and satisfy me it's that last one that really gets to the heart of the matter isn't it like you can be inclined to the word and nothing will be happening your eyes can be open to see and the affections not yet be quickly not yet be awakened and your heart can be united that is not fractured and going in a thousand directions but until the Holy Spirit moves with a sweet satisfaction and all that God is for us in Jesus until that happens then we're not going to be fit to walk into the end of the world so that's a glimpse of how I approach the word every day and usually it's in the morning 99.9% of the time I'm up early enough to to be in the word every every day the second question is that Noel and I have tried to make a practice as a couple not just with children of praying together every day and bathing that prayer in the Word of God and so this morning we prayed together before we came over here in the evening we've been reading out loud to each other little biographies we just finished a short biography of Lord Shaftesbury we didn't like it I didn't like it because it see I thought the man was too hard on him but but we're reading out loud together there these little volumes in America called Martin Luther had a wife or CS Lewis had a wife there's five volumes in fact they're all in one volume now with about 25 lives and we read them out loud to each other and then we read a portion of Scripture right now we're in first John and then we would pray together so that's that's what we've been doing for 50 years I mean we were just married 50 years less December when the kids were there we added on to that devotions with the kids in the morning one Bible verse I mean breakfast is clearly is one Bible verse and in prayer before we eat breakfast together we try to eat breakfast as a family hard to get the family together always as the kids get older but in the evening there would be Bible story and and prayer and we would either read Bible story book or we would read some chapter in the Bible and then we prayed together and there were there were times when we sang but not as religious not as faithfully as I would now given my Keith Geddes pressure but but just a little thought about singing there that's another thing say for the last two years or so I have I have a phone here and I have on it Evernote and one of my one of my files in Evernote is called songs and I have about 130 favorite hymns and I simply sing through them every morning so all by myself in my study in my little nook where nobody can hear me but God I think I sing and and that that sometimes feels to be very awkward and sometimes very authentic but it just seems the right thing to do maybe that's enough on that so what's your favorite hymn if you had to choose one well okay I would say let's just go with the most I love right now singing he will hold me fast more than singing anything else just because I'm old and need to be held on to till I'm dead and I thought once upon a time my view of sanctification had to be refined over the years because I thought when I was 30 that walking with the lord for say 40 years which would bring you to 70 would mean that you have 30 years worth of trajectory that would secure your last 5 it doesn't work like that I think that I am as vulnerable today to dullness and worldliness and temptation as I ever was that may sound tragic - you like sanctification is supposed to be progressive in it so what's with that and I don't know what it is I just know when Paul said I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith I think he meant I fought it to the end and if you get the notion down long about 60 or 65 you can stop fighting and live off previous warfare you're in trouble he says my experience stay within the context of family someone's asked I was saved after I got married I accept the biblical teaching that my husband is the head of the house and family what advice do you give to a woman in this situation so I'm presuming the husband is an unbeliever an unbeliever there's the text written for you it's first Peter 3 1 to 6 is written to women who are married to unbelievers so that my first advice would be memorized those verses and they are their most remarkable and I love those verses I love them for myself frankly I most most of the texts that are written for women in the Bible I find very helpful for me but but that's the place and the burden of that text is that your life is essential to your words I mean it says that he may be one without a word now I don't think that is an absolute mean you can't ever talk about Jesus with your husband because he's got to know you're a believer or he can't be converted and says he will be converted so he's got to know the gospel and and so I think it means don't harangue him don't nag him don't preach at him but in in all humility and all lowliness somewhere along the way lay your heart bare before this man as to where you stand and why you're there not in a preachy way but a testimony way this is why I love Jesus I believe that loving Jesus will help me love you better so please don't think that when I put him first I'm loving you worse it doesn't work that way honey it doesn't it doesn't I will love you better for loving him more now he may find that unintelligible but you you need to then show that you need to prove that and it's very complex in a day like ours when spousal abuse is the first thing people think of often when you talk about submission and then go there if you want to but there is a real kind of submission that does not make your husband your absolute law that text makes no sense unless Jesus is your Lord above your husband because you're aiming to convert the husband to the Lord that's above you you both and if you're aiming to convert your husband clearly you have not submitted to his wrong ideas I mean think think through the implications of this text for what submission doesn't doesn't mean it doesn't mean that your brain has been surrendered to the unbelievers brain because it would worry you'd become an unbeliever and the clicks clearly clearly says stand your ground woman stand your ground you have an independent relationship with the Lord that's authentic and unshakable no matter what he says no matter what he does this is real and Jesus is your your Lord and you want him included in that that's a remarkably independent in a sense you might say non submissive so at the level of intellectual commitments you're committed to Jesus not to what the husband believes which means that that submission has a flavor about it that's not absolute istic in the sense of he's this this man is my Lord whatever he says goes it doesn't whatever Jesus says goes but oh my once you have rested in Jesus and longed to show this man as a leader that is honor his leadership he may not even be a leader but you're gonna do everything you can to honor that leadership and call out of him all the initiatives all the protection all the provision those are the those are the three words that I think headship implies that is protecting this woman I'm gonna die for her if I have to I'm gonna she is my woman nobody can have her but me and I'm protecting her against everything that might hurt her number two I'm gonna do everything I can to provide her even if I've got a disability and she has to work for me I'm gonna do everything I can to be the provider and I'm gonna take initiatives I'm talking to the men now really but that's what she wants to awaken and win from him and and I think there are submissive ways to say no to an unbelieving husband if he wants you to do groups you're gonna say I can't I love you I think this is bad for you bad for us can't do that because of Jesus so you know with all the with all the text in the Bible the talk about subordination children to parents wives to husband's citizens to governments and church members to elders those four groups all of them are qualified they're not absolute right you don't do everything that government says you don't do everything a wacko elder says who's left the faith you don't do everything a parent tells you to do if they try to get you to join them in sinning in some way you the the absoluteness of Jesus relative Isis qualifies the subordination of a child a wife a citizen and a church member let me jump off that into this because it relates to the member elder thing so someone has asked when if ever is it appropriate to move from one local church to another because of a lack of confidence in the leadership if the lack of confidence is rooted in the pastor's misuse of the word of God at a level that's serious enough to undermine the gospel or compromise the faith that would be one answer that's that's when it would be perfectly legitimate I think and you wouldn't do it quickly I'm not eager to have people jumping around from church to church as the pastor says something they don't don't like I'm just saying after prayerful and thoughtful and personal engagement with the pastor this is one of my biggest beef says that people just leave and don't ever say to anything to anybody they should make an appointment with the pastor and say here's what we've heard from you that de stresses us and we need to know are we miss hearing you because we don't want to be troublemakers here we just wanted to be sheep that are fed and grow in grace and and how that pastor responds to that will will help them know is there a disagreement here about the authority of Scripture about the nature of Christ's work about the application of the gospel to lives that is fundamentally breaking and and if so then you said and then you'd be right up front with the passion say well we're we're feeling then that we we can't authentic because of that profound serious disagreement and hopefully there could be an amicable go your way but I would just encourage people to be slow to do that I mean it would be easy for me I think I'm I go to the church I attend the church where I pastored for 33 years it's been six years since I stepped out of the pulpit I love this church I love the new pastor new six years in and their little things I would do different bunch of them and how easy it would be to say well good one of the church plants they do a better over there I don't got a good idea I think I need to be real slow to make those kinds of things another question should churches sing worship songs written by people or churches who do not hold to Orthodox biblical theology you know we do it already you just don't know you know that's not that that's that's not an answer that's an observation and the answer is not simple in principle I think it can be done what makes it less confident saying no problem is that like hanging out with anybody on any issue of ATCO belligerents whether the hanging out signifies compromise is what makes a difference like if if I stand in line at an abortion clinic to protest and next to me as a Catholic priest that okay oh look Piper plays fast and loose with the doctrine of justification he doesn't think it's a big deal that people have the wrong view of Mary or that the exalt the human authority over scripture that he doesn't I do that because I don't think that's what people infer I don't think one person in a thousand watches me and that Catholic priest marching together in front of Planned Parenthood and conclude they're both wishy-washy on doctrine I don't think anybody goes there now if I believe they did I probably wouldn't so back to the him if there is a sense among enough people we're compromising our convictions about X important doctrine by singing that song written by those people who contradict that doctrine I think I'd back away from it I mean there are a lot of good songs why use the ones that are caused problems there are hundreds of wonderful songs I mean let's be specific Hillsong not exactly my favorite way of doing church or understanding some things he's the breath in our lungs I've sung dozen times and and others so I don't think there's a I don't think people are concluding oppai purrs you know wishy-washy on on the differences there and I will sing this is my father's world I don't think the person who wrote that was even a Christian probably so truth matters more than origin make sure what you're singing is true and that you can give I mean I when we sing and can it be written by Charles Wesley I know that what he means by thine I diffused a quickening ray is not what I mean when I sing that's all I changed the meaning in my head I give it a Calvinistic meaning and that's true with numerous songs that I know the people who wrote this song intended something I will not intend but the words are not so particular that they demand now I wish I didn't have to do that but the song is so great in so many ways and so many people sing it I just adjust this is a great question hi Pastor John I'm someone who's been exposed to a lot of Christian talks and events in the last couple of years but I am still struggling to put my faith in Christ what advice could you give me still struggling to put my faith in Christ yeah well I wish I knew you I would really probe before I gave an answer I mean I would probe the word struggle what is that I wanna I want to help you so bad get over that mate let me just say what comes to my mind I give you two texts and then tell you why the word struggle is a little odd and yet understandable in Matthew 7 jesus said the way is narrow and the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and few there be that find it know that that would mean well of course you couldn't struggle this hard I mean that's what he said the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to and few there be that find it he must have said that because he knew you're you're trying to get through the door right and it's hard I don't even know how to do this how do you get through the door the gate so narrow and it's hard okay so that text gives me empathy with the word struggle but you what four chapters later come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now just you those are both in the Bible the way is hard the gate is narrow it's it's an easy you know it's a light burden both are true that's what we believe about this book both are true what makes a little theologian out of everybody is trying to make them figure out how they're both true and in my mind here's my best shot at how they can both be true what could be easier than to stop working for God stop trying to prove anything as a means of salvation and just rest in the work of Jesus that is so complete so full to cover all your sins give you all the righteousness you need adopt you into the family without working what could be easier than to say I give up I fall down I rest I'll tell you what could be easier a proud working for God because we don't like to become children unless you turn to become like little children you can't enter the kingdom of heaven who wants to be a little child somebody I want to look competent children they just I mean where where is he he walked into the honey Pasteur's he walked in with that little baby two week old baby a while ago I'm this guy's gigantic razor here where are you there you are okay just you walk here see baby look like a dot in his arm and who wants to look like that bag I want to look like you I don't I don't mess with you you know no don't okay but you know he can hold his own in the world and make it in the scheme I presume but that baby nobody's gonna praise that baby that's why it's hard our ego makes it hard to come to Jesus it's not hard to come to Jesus it's not a struggle except to struggle to rest that's my answer to how those texts can be true the one says come and rest it's easy it's light and the other says it's hard and that's because resting is hard for people with an ego so I'm being hard on you now maybe the struggle is rooted in I want to reserve for myself some power some ego some praise some worth something instead of I'm just done I am done trying to prove anything that's what I'd say I think we'll end it there we're gonna sing before financial would you mind praying just to finish off our day so father for the brother or sister who who just asked that question I'm sure they are not alone and that others perhaps here and we know you know churches do struggle what does it mean how can I do it what how can I lay down all the objections lay down all the resistance that rises up in my heart that doesn't want to let certain things go and I just ask right now that the miracle would be wrought and that the eyes of the heart would be so illumined with the beauty of Christ the sufficiency of Christ and the greatness of Christ and the power of Christ and the system of Christ that all resistance would fall so strengthen things in the churches Lord of twenty schemes thank you for this ministry may every need be met for every church and may the dreams be fulfilled for the twenty-plus in Jesus name I pray amen

Channel: 20schemes

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Keywords: 20schemes, john, piper, desiring, god, mez, mcconnell, andy, prime, edinburgh, sing, scotland

Id: NAJJMeg-tkA

Length: 27min 26sec (1646 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 17 2019