Passion 2020 - John Piper

[Applause] let's pray together and invite you to pray with me father I ask now that the miracle of the new birth the miracle of the awakening of a supreme desire for Jesus above all things would be granted to thousands I pray that every Christian would be awakened fresh to desire Christ above everything I asked this in Jesus name Amen for over 20 years now the flag that's been flying over passion conferences is from the prophet Isaiah chapter 26 verse 8 and find it on the website you can read it on the screen goes like this yes Lord walking in the way of your truth we wait eagerly for you for your name and your renown are the desire of our souls it's never changed from 1997 your name Oh God your renown your fame is the desire of our souls so yes Lord we wait for you we want you we desire you and the reason that I say you and not just your name or your fame is first because that's what the text says we wait eagerly for you but because that's what the name means your name is your being in the Bible when God revealed his name in Exodus 3 they said I am Who I am my name is my eminence my being so when you desire the name you desire the person and when you desire the renowned you desire the fame of the person now on this side of the Incarnation it has another name his name is Jesus I don't know if he's you're as amazed as I am by these outrageous things Jesus said the most outrageous thing Jesus ever said was before Abraham was I am so when you desire the name when you say your name and your fame are my desire you mean Yahweh I am Who I am who is Jesus that's what we believe passion is built on the deity of Christ that Jesus is Yahweh and the word became flesh right in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was Yahweh and the word became flesh so we believe that Yahweh is now a god man Jesus and then the angel says you should call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins so for 23 years that's been the flag waving over passion our desire our greatest desire which is what I'm praying for you that your greatest desire would be for Yahweh Jesus the god man Savior not just privately like me and Jesus my desire satisfied he and I right here in this moment happy rather your desire is to be for Jesus famous Jesus renown not a private desire it's only you and Jesus you don't know Jesus the passion for his fame is right there in the verse your name and your renown are the desire of our souls and when we say that his name and his fame are our desire we don't mean maybe maybe he'll be famous there's no maybe about it the fame of God's name is not a maybe Psalm 22 all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations shall is none maybe shall worship before you why because kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nation's he's not a maybe the gospel of Jesus the gospel of yahuwah the gospel of the cross is going to reach the nation's he will gather his sheep he will build his church for kingship belongs to the Lord it's not a maybe revelation 5:9 you were slain and by your blood you ransom people for god that's a done thing it's finished you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation they are ransomed God's elect among the nations are ransomed they are coming from every tribe and every people and the global glory of Jesus is not a maybe revelation 11 the kingdom of the world has become it's as good as done has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever there is no maybe there will be no competing kings his name his fame will be supreme every contending king will be thrown down Isaiah 2 the haughtiness of man shall be humbled you haughty you're coming down the lofty pride of men will be brought low whether they're in politics or not the Lord alone will be exalted in that day alone which means that the humble and lowly in this stadium the humble the broken the lowly whose greatest desires the name in the fame of Jesus will receive your desire in full in due time he will be with you and you will be with him and every hindrance every obstacle between your joy and its total fulfillment will be removed revelation 21 behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with him they will be his people and God Himself will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away that's coming this fame this god man Jesus this Yahweh is coming the desire of your souls for his name and his fame will not be disappointed there's no maybe about it if you don't desire it you won't have it to be born again is to taste that God is more to be desired than anything that's what it means to be born again the creation of a desire for God greater than the desire for anything else is to be a Christian it's a miracle you can't make it happen nothing is more important in your life then the awakening of this desire the triumph of this desire over all other desires is the most important thing in your life if the name and the fame of Jesus the Savior the Son of God the king of kings does not become your greatest desire you will not only waste your life you will lose it which leads to two questions two objections if I had as I have experienced them and heard them over the years and now two objections in my hope and my prayer that is in answering these two objections these two obstacles between our glugging our deepest fullest longest most durable desire on your way Jesus in answering these objections that God might open your heart to desire I pray that you will give yourself no rest until Jesus personally precious globally famous is your supreme desire now here are the two objections number 1 Piper doesn't all this emphasis on desire backfire in the end even if you say it's a desire for God you're still making so much of your desire the state of your own heart you're gonna make a God out of desire Piper you make it God out of desire with all this focus and emphasis upon desire the whole thing backfires doesn't it that's question number one here's the second one I know where you're going what if I urge you which I do not only to desire the name in the fame of Jesus above everything but to make that desire that confidence that that desire is going to be full what if I tell you you must make that desire the sustaining force of every act of love in your life or it's not acceptable to God would not some one object that is a perfect way to contaminate love for others turning it into self seeking my desire he's going to find satisfaction through loving you so it's all about me it's all about my desire and I use you so Piper you ruin the moral beauty of love sacrificial self giving love you ruin it in front of all these students telling them to pursue their desires and turning love into self seeking that's objection number two if I thought that those two fears the fear of making a God out of desire the fear of turning love into a morally defective self seeking if I thought that was only a passion problem I proudly wouldn't focus on it but my experience is that probably hundreds of thousands of people around the world are lamed in their relation to God by the suspicion that desire is a dangerous ally in worship because it turns worship into about my cravings and my desires and my sense is that they're hundreds of thousands of people who are hindered in genuinely loving other people by the suspicion that pursuing my desire through love is a defective motive for any good deed let alone every good deed as you say Piper so what should we do somebody raises an objection to something you've been taught what should you do before you get entangled in psychological and philosophical and ethical analyses of your own desires my suggestion and this is what I'm going to do is that before that you look at Jesus you open this book and you look at him and you ask him what do you say about desire and it's motive how did you act in love in regard to the desire of your soul you don't just go spinning off in philosophical thoughts coming out of your own head who cares about your head everybody cares about this if they have any sense at all God's explanation for how to think about desire how to experience desire how to pursue desire how desire functions in worship and in love should make all the difference to us so that's what I want to do I want to look at a passage in response to the first objection and a passage in response to the second objection and then ask the Holy Spirit to cause you to be born again or if you are to be inflamed afresh with a superior desire for God above all things perhaps the person who objects this objection number one perhaps the person who objects would take me to mark chapter eight and you would say look it's obvious to us that you're making the God out of desire you've got things all out of proportion by telling these students to pursue and glut and fulfill their desires on God because Jesus taught us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and you're going around the country and de pasión telling them to glut their desire not deny their desires so here's the verse you see it if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me deny yourself Piper stop telling these people to pursue their desires and tell them to deny their desires it's what the Bible says and you know what it crosses Piper not a burden its death it's the electric chair to yourself come on to which I respond you need to look more carefully at what Jesus actually said how Jesus actually argues one of the brothers we were praying back there had had on my shoulder and he prayed that God would raise up not only missionaries but pastors and Bible teachers and lovers of the Word of God I thought I would like that to happen so I hope you're watching watch what I do here because we read the Bible so superficially so you need to look I'm talking to my objector now objective number one you're making a God out of desire you should be telling people to deny themselves get on the road to those unreached people's I'm gonna argue from the way Jesus argues that this text is not only not a problem for what I'm saying it's the basis of what I'm saying now that sounds backwards how can Jesus teaching that we should deny ourselves actually teach we should deed indulge our desire for God how can you be teaching that that's exactly what it teaches and we'll see it in just a moment but let me state the premise and the big picture first and we'll look at it in the text all Christian self-denial is for the sake of ultimate eternal satisfaction in God in fact the effort to deny yourself God as your supreme desire is idolatry blasphemy God offers himself in this stadium right now through his word by his Spirit he offers himself to us as the infinitely valuable infinitely beautiful all satisfying treasure of the universe for your full and everlasting pleasure read it some 1611 in your presence God there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore full and forever you can't improve on that there's nothing fuller than full there's nothing longer than forever if we turn away from that offer if we turn away from the offer of everlasting pleasure in the presence of God as the fulfillment of our lifelong desire if we turn away from that saying no God Jesus taught me to deny myself I cannot accept that offer to sooo you as my full and lasting pleasure we are idolaters so listen again mark 8:34 if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me so pause make no mistake before we go to verse 35 make no mistake there is real self-denial in the Christian life a real cross to die on real suffering to endure for Jesus a real death to die a real old John Piper that's got to be put to death everyday at age 73 no less than 23 there's real self-denial Christianity is costly it will cost many of you your lives I'm thinking you're gonna give tonight towards these languages right thousands of languages that means tell me two unreached people they don't have the gospel and they don't have the Bible are you to take it - are you become a Bible translator or you look at a gift now I know most of you shouldn't go but how many a thousand a thousand for the next 13 years I'm gonna make it happen I'm this I'm not going to just give to make it happen I'm here to Train to make it happen I'm going where does that come from that comes from a lot of self-denial but how does Jesus argue the Bible argues you know this don't you the Bible is not a string of pearls it's a chain hits the chain of arguments so what's the argument in verse 35 for verse 34 but let's look at for you know what that word me because so verse 34 should be obeyed because whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my snake in the Gospels will save it do you see how he's arguing with verse 35 why should we not save our little American comfortable lives in the service of Jesus and not go to the unreached people why because if we do that we lose our lives and you don't want to lose your life see the argument you get the argument why should we be willing second half of the verse to lose our lives in the service of Jesus and leave behind so much of what other thousands are craving and living for why should we be willing to do that answer I'm gonna save our lives if we do that forever and you want to save your life so what does the argument assume in order to work in order to be valid it assumes no true disciple will throw away eternal joy in God for a mere 80 years of comfort here we're not idiots Christian disciples are not idiots that's no deal 80 years of bliss eternity of misery another deal disciples of Jesus along with Jesus assume that desires for joy in God forever our more should be stronger than the desire for anything this world has to give that's the assumption of the argument if pursuing our desire our eternal joy in God costs us everything here let it go we lay it down the goods in kindred go this mortal life also the body they may kill guts truth--it by this steel I'm going to translate a Bible this is how bold Christians come into being this is where risk-taking missionaries come from this is where your world gets turned upside down so no no no no we do not make a God out of desire our desires make clear what our God is this world our God our name or his name our fame or his fame our desires are not what we worship they are our worship and what we desire most is gone if you belong to Jesus you say Isaiah 26 we're circling back you say Isaiah 26 8 your name and your renown is the desire of my soul that's the mark of a Christian not a mature Christian a Christian there's a lot hanging here in the balance objection number two I see where you're going Piper and I don't like it you are leading us to say not only that we should desire the name in the fame of Jesus above all things you're leading us to say that that motive that desire that longing should be the sustaining force of all of our loving acts which means our entire life because Paul said let everything you do be done in love and yet you are here this morning ruining love you're taking a morally beautiful act of self-sacrifice and turning it into an ugly act of self seeking by making your desire the motive for others good I don't like that Piper so once more we look to Jesus and this time we'll look at Hebrews 12 verses 1 & 2 I'm gonna start in the middle of verse 1 let us run with confidence the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder that's what I want to do I look to Jesus show me what - did Jesus tell me how you did it model for me how to do this looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God so the writer pictures life your life as a marathon not a sprint and see it in the first seven words of that text let us run with endurance the race you don't need endurance to run 100-meter dash you need strength but here to run for 26.2 - miles you need endurance the Christian life is just one long life of costly love and you need endurance to make it to the end Jesus marathon lasted thirty three years it's the underlined last night thirty three comes after twenty you get that from last night thirty three comes after twenty death at thirty three comes after the kind of desires that have been cultivated in the twentieth he ran the final hours of the race with nails in his feet and nails in his hands and a kind of thorn on his hand he never stopped running the marathon that would hurt it did hurt and he finished then I could wish I could wish in a room that's got many unbelievers and believers in it I could wish that we could all agree in the history of the world there never has been an act of love greater than the act of Jesus dying for his enemies that they might be saved there's never been a greater there never will be a greater act of love so the question is alright if that was the greatest act of love how did he have the strength to do it Duggal philosophical on me don't go theological on me go textual read your Bible you will be saved for much nonsense on your campuses if you're a person of the book what does the text say right in the middle of the text it for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame for the joy on the other side of suffering on the other side of death on the other side of the Resurrection he could taste it and so he considered the shame you know criminals were crucified naked and reviled shame was the name of the game to kill this way and he considered the shame and he despised the same what does that mean what is he despised shame me he pictured shame that's kind of tempter you've faced him shame he said I know what you're trying to do to me I know the power that you have to turn people away from the path of obedience and love I know how you create in the human soul and almost irresistible desire not to be embarrassed oh I don't what to be embarrassed I know how you work and shame I can taste I can taste right there in the court and on the cross I can taste a joy 10,000 times greater than you would give me if I feared you and followed you and escaped embarrassment I can taste it and Shane I despise what you are doing I hate you I turn away from you I throw you out Shane you will not direct me off my path of love and obedience for the joy set before me I'm gonna finish this and you can just go to hell where you come from and with that he endured the cross through shame to the wind died for sin rose again reached the joy he reached the joy that was set before him here's my conclusion mark this either believeth and be a Christian or don't believe it and don't play games the greatest act of love that was ever performed in the history of the world was sustained by the desire for joy in the presence of God when it says in verse one looking to Jesus it doesn't mean don't act like Jesus Jesus is a bad model here don't follow him and be motivated this way when you love other people it doesn't mean their it means that's a good example that's a good way to love that's a good way to die that's a good motive for going to the unreached peoples of the world and leaving everything behind that's a good model look at him look at him that's what it means when it says looking to Jesus so last question then if every act of love true love real love Jesus like love is sustained by a desire for the joy that is set before you in the presence of God then how is it that every act of love is not corrupted into self seeking selfishness you're teaching these students to be selfish in love how is that not a valid criticism of what I'm saying why isn't the cross to put it crassly why isn't the cross a great act of selfishness since for the joy of his own soul he died for you for the joy of his own soul in the presence of God he died for you why is that not selfishness here's the answer selfishness is using or ignoring other people to get your happiness at their expense let's know what's happening on the cross let's know what's happening when you genuinely love somebody Jesus is not using or ignoring sinners as he dies for them Jesus is suffering and dying precisely to include others in the happiness He desires that's the answer we say it again you weigh it you test it selfishness is pursuing your happiness by ignoring or abusing or neglecting others in order to get your own private gladness that's not what's happening on the cross Jesus is suffering and dying precisely to include others in the happiness that he longs for so how does that apply to you nobody at least if they're thinking clearly nobody calls it selfishness when you aim to increase your happiness by including others in it at the cost of your life nobody calls that selfishness nobody calls it selfishness when you are pursuing your fullest and longest joy by drawing as many as you can into it because you know that your enjoyment of God is bigger when other people are with you in it and you're willing to die for that which is what Jesus did and I look around this room and think of what you're about to commit to financially Knight and I pray way more than financially I pray that you will be satisfied in him so we conclude passion 2020 is still flying under or still under the flying banner of the miracle of desire for your name and your fame and I'm calling you here at the end your name your renown oh Lord are the desire of our souls nothing is more important than for you to experience the triumph of this desire in your heart if the name of Jesus Savior Son of God King of Kings if the name of Jesus does not become your greatest desire you will not only waste your life you will lose it but if Jesus becomes your greatest desire though it may cost you your life you will finish the race many will come with you and you together with them will enter into the joy of your master forever so father I ask now that the miracle would come in these days I pray that no one would escape the power that you are exerting that you would lay hold on unbelievers who just came to check out what this is and I asked that they would leave convinced God is glorified and people are loved if I pursue you god as my supreme desire and am willing to lay down my life to include others in it I pray for that miracle now in Jesus name Amen

Channel: passionconferences

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Keywords: Passion, Passion 2020, John Piper, Isaiah 26:8, Desires, Desiring God, Jesus, Sermons, Passion Sermons, Passion Messages, Sadie Robertson, Louie Giglio, Shelley Giglio, Levi Lusko, Tim Tebow, Mercedes-Benz, Atlanta, christian

Id: wNUK05tHlWM

Length: 44min 58sec (2698 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020