Sergio and I have purchased our tickets for the Resolved Conference. We also have a room reserved for that time in Palm Springs. We are currently looking for another married couple to share the room (and expense) with. If you're part of a married entity and going to Resolved and also might want to share the cost of a hotel room, please email me or Sergio! :)
The Desiring God regional conference was held at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest last weekend. It was in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Piper's book, Desiring God. John Piper gave one very long two-part sermon, and also used designated time to do Q & A. The sermon was a broad preface to his book that expanded on what it means when he says, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."
There were five sequential parts to the sermon that I'm going to try to wrap up in a few paragraphs. I would really encourage those who want to hear it from John and not a somewhat-inept third party to go to the Desiring God website and listen to the sermons.
Firstly, what is the aim of God in everything he does? God's motive is to do everything to uphold and display the value of his righteousness in glory.
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his devine forbearance he had passed over former sings. It was to show his righteousness as the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
Romans 3: 23 - 28
Christ took on God's wrath so that God's righteousness be shown. Before Christ, sins were overlooked with the knowledge that they would be paid for by Christ in the future.
Sin is anything done in exchange of God for our supreme pleasure. What then is the significance of sin if it cost the son of God his life? Its significance is God's unwavering commitment to uphold the value of his glory.
Secondly, God bids us all to join us in the pursuit of his glory. Our purpose, the reason for our creation, is to make God look glorious.
"A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" Isaiah 40:3 - 6
Christians should live in a way that displays to the world that we value Jesus more than anything. This is how God lives and how he wants us to live too.
Moreover, this is how we should do ministry.
"...whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies - in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 4:11
Thirdly, this leads to the discovery that our biggest joy comes not from being big, but from knowing big; and therein lies massive solutions for life.
He used his classic analogy of going to the Grand Canyon. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to feel important or big. It makes us feel small and insignificant and that incites something in us that feeds the hunger of our purpose. We get some kind of pleasure out of knowing how big and majestic we are not. That inclination for knowing big things was deliberate in our creation. The problem comes when we substitute lesser things than God (which is everything) to satisfy that hunger.
The objection is obvious. Is God just a vain attention-monger demanding we stop what we're doing to look at him? This was C.S. Lewis' objection while he was an atheist. He tells us about it in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy.
"The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard him, is implicitly answered by the words, 'If I be hungry I will not tell thee' (50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don't want my dog to bark approval of my books.”
If God is completely sufficient in and of himself, why does he need our praise? If he is a deity that does as he pleases, why even bother with us at all? After conversion, C.S. Lewis had a revelation (this is a long - but profound - revelation):
But the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise...The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses [Romeo praising Juliet and vice versa], readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. . . I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise 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?'...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 is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . .
Basically, God is inviting us to enjoy him. Why do we resist? C.S. Lewis to rescue again! This time, from the Weight of Glory.
"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
God is the one being for whom self-exaltation is not a sin: it is the biggest act of love.
Our deepest experience for joy cannot be found in anything higher/else than God.
Fourthly, the grouping of all the preceding has a massive implication: if everything so far is correct, we must focus our entire lives on the pursuit of happiness and joy in him. There are many reasons for this. Scripture bids us to rejoice. Pastors should strive to work for the joy of their people. There is joy in believing in Christ. (Faith is finding a well when you're thirsty and drinking to your heart's content). The nature of evil tells us we need to find joy in Christ. (Evil is tasting God's all-satisfying fountain and rejecting it to build broken cisterns). Conversion tells us to find joy in Christ. (To treasure Christ is what it MEANS to be converted). Paradoxically, the bible's teaching of self-denial teaches us to seek our fullest joy (in God). Mark 8:34-35; John 12:25; Philippians 3: 7-8. Here's the kicker: God never requires ULTIMATE self-denial. He never requires us to deny ourselves of Him. Deny yourself tin so you can have gold.
Lastly, again paradoxically, love is the overflow of joy in Christ that meets the needs of others. If your life's pursuit is to seek your own joy, how does that translate in that it is to seek the joy of others? Love is the grace-enabled impulse to expand itself to expand itself to others. The more authentic your joy in Jesus is, the more of an impulse it will have to include others in it. This doesn't lead to a life of self-centeredness. It leads to a life of Christ-centeredness. And the Lord is our ultimate gain.
Oh yeah, Roderick was there too :)
That's almost a third of our STM team! The pursuit of joy in Christ is something I never wish to lose. May we make much of him.
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