What’s the Deepest Desire of My Heart?

[Music] what's the deepest longing of the human heart what's your deepest desire what's the thing you want most there's an answer to that question and it's the focus of today's episode during the month of December leading up to Christmas I want to do something we've never done before I've convinced pastor John to read a few chapters from his excellent book seeing and savoring Jesus Christ I love that little book and this is my nudge to see if Pastor John will read the whole thing as his first audio book to that end he recorded one chapter for us for you in the APJ audience you're hearing it for the very first time so here now as pastor Don reading chapter 1 from his wonderful book seeing and savoring Jesus Christ a chapter that answers the question what is the deepest longing of my heart declare the glory of God Psalm 19:1 God who said light shall shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2nd Corinthians 4:6 chapter 1 seeing and savoring the glory of God the ultimate aim of Jesus Christ the created universe is all about glory the deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this the glory of God the universe was made to show it and we were made to see it and savor it nothing less will do which is why the world is as disordered and as dysfunctional as it is we have exchanged the glory of God for other things Romans 1:23 the heavens declare the glory of God some nineteen one that is why all the universe exists it's all about glory the Hubble Space Telescope sends back infrared images of faint galaxies perhaps twelve billion light years away 12 billion times 6 trillion miles even within our Milky Way there are stars so great as to defy description like Etta carinii which is 5 million times brighter than our Sun sometimes people stumble over this vastness in relation to the apparent insignificance of man it does seem to make us infinitesimally small but the meaning of this magnitude is not mainly about us it's about God the heavens declare the glory of God says the scripture the reason for wasting so much space on a universe to house a speck of humanity is to make a point about our maker not us lift up your eyes on high and see who created these stars he who brings out their hosts by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in or not one of them is missing Isaiah 40 26 the deepest longing of the human heart is to know and enjoy the glory of God we were made for this bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth whom I created for my glory says the Lord Isaiah 43 6 and 7 to see it to savor it and to show it that is why we exist the untracked unimaginable stretches of the created universe are a parable about the inexhaustible riches of his glory romans 9 23 the physical eye is meant to say to the spiritual eye not this but the maker of this is the desire of your soul st. Paul said we rejoice in hope of the glory of God Romans 5:2 or even more precisely he said that we were prepared beforehand for glory Romans 9 23 this is why we were created that he might make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy Romans 9 23 the ache of every human heart is an ache for this but we suppress it and do not see fit to have God in our knowledge Romans 1:28 therefore the entire creation has fallen into disorder the most prominent example of this in the Bible is the disordering of our sexual lives Paul says that the exchange of the glory of God for other things is the root cause for the homosexual and heterosexual disordering of our relationships their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another Romans 1:26 and 27 if we exchange God's glory for lesser things he gives us up to lived out parables of depravity the other exchanges that mirror in our misery the ultimate sellout the point is this we were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things and when we trade that treasure for images everything is disordered the son of God's glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul and when it does all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit but when the Sun is displaced everything flies apart the healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming all attracting place at the center we are all starved for the glory of God not self no one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self esteem why do we go because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self indeed what could be more ludicrous in a vast and glorious universe like this then a human being on the speck called Earth standing in front of a mirror trying to find significance in his own self image it is a great sadness that this is the gospel of the modern world but it is not the Christian gospel into the darkness of petty self preoccupation has shown the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God 2nd Corinthians 4:4 the Christian gospel is about the glory of Christ not about me and when it is in some measure about me it is not about my being made much of by God but about God mercifully enabling me to enjoy making much of him forever what was the most loving thing Jesus could do for us what was the end point the highest good of the gospel redemption forgiveness justification reconciliation sanctification adoption are not all of these great wonders simply means to something greater something final something that Jesus asked his father to give us father I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me John 17:20 for the Christian gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ because it's final aim is that we would see and savor and show the glory of Christ for this is none other than the glory of God he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature Hebrews 1:3 he is the image of the invisible God Colossians 1:15 when the light of the gospel shines in our hearts it is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ second Corinthians 4:6 and when we rejoice in hope of the glory of God Romans 5:2 that hope is our Blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ Titus 2:13 the glory of Christ is the glory of God in one sense Christ laid the glory of God aside when he came and now father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed John 17:5 but in another sense Christ manifested the glory of God in his coming the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth John 1:14 therefore in the gospel we see and savour the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2nd Corinthians 4:6 and this kind of seeing is the healing of our disordered lives we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another second Corinthians 3:18 a prayer Oh father of glory this is the cry of our hearts to be changed from one degree of glory to another until in the resurrection at the last trumpet we are completely conformed to the image of your son Jesus Christ our Lord until then we long to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord especially the knowledge of his glory we want to see it as clearly as we see the Sun and to savor it as deeply as our most desired pleasure o merciful father incline our hearts to your word and the wonders of your glory weenus off our obsession with trivial things open the eyes of our hearts to see each day what the created universe is telling us about your glory enlighten our minds to see the glory of your son in the gospel we believe that you are the all-glorious one and that there is none like you help our unbelief give the wandering of our affections and the undue attention we give to lesser things have mercy on us for Christ's sake and fulfilling us your great design to display the glory of your grace in Jesus name we pray amen yeah amen wean us from our obsession with trivial things a daily prayer that I need that is chapter one from Pastor John's book seeing and savoring Jesus Christ and wherever you're listening in the midst of your day thanks for joining us be sure to subscribe to a special John in your favorite podcast app in youtube or in Spotify and for our episode archive or to submit a question of your own go to desiring God data work forward slash ask Pastor John mixed up a missions question Pastor John is in the studio I'll ask him if the nations will be reached before Christ returns or after he returns and how does revelation 14:6 fit into the mix it's a good question up next time I'm your host Tony rinky we'll see you on Friday you

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 19,737

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, APJ, Ask Pastor John, Desire, Heart

Id: ERKuzzcwmjM

Length: 13min 54sec (834 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 11 2019