The Outrage of History
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.400 | What is the greatest problem in the universe?
00:00:08.900 | And what is the greatest problem in my heart?
00:00:12.100 | And what is the solution to these problems?
00:00:15.200 | John Piper explained in a 2015 sermon, but first he explained why the universe exists
00:00:21.100 | and why you and I exist. Here's what he said.
00:00:25.100 | So the meaning of human life, the meaning of existence, the meaning of the universe
00:00:30.800 | is at its core all things to be used to show how magnificent God is.
00:00:39.000 | This universe is about God. You know, sometimes I've heard skeptics or atheists
00:00:46.700 | shake their heads at the notion that Christians could believe that on this infinitesimal planet
00:00:57.100 | where there is a self-conscious being called man could believe that God created the universe
00:01:04.600 | about that. Because as far as we know it's just so vast and empty.
00:01:10.100 | And I say, you've got it totally upside down.
00:01:14.100 | It's not about that. That is to show this little infinitesimal people something little about God.
00:01:22.300 | The universe is to display God to that little planet.
00:01:26.800 | It's not about that little planet. It's about God.
00:01:31.000 | And the universe is God's best effort to say that's how big I am.
00:01:35.700 | That's how strong I am. That's how glorious and magnificent.
00:01:39.000 | The galaxies are all about God, not man. There's nothing unusual about it at all.
00:01:44.100 | The disproportion between the universe in all of its vast glory and infinitesimal little man
00:01:49.700 | is perfectly rational if you're God-centered.
00:01:53.700 | If God is all, if God is the reality in the universe, and man is his little amazing worshiping group.
00:02:03.900 | So we've learned that that's why we exist and therefore money, sex, and power are in the world
00:02:11.900 | for us to use in order to make God look great.
00:02:18.400 | Then we discovered another foundational reality, namely that we have all exchanged the glory of God
00:02:26.400 | everywhere we've looked. We have seen it. We have known it in some deep sense and we've suppressed it.
00:02:33.300 | And we have preferred other things to God.
00:02:37.200 | And that's the arch heresy and the greatest outrage of the universe,
00:02:43.100 | that people prefer other things to God.
00:02:47.900 | They exchange. They see God. They trade God. They embrace their death, call it their glory.
00:02:55.900 | And that's the tragedy and the outrage of history.
00:03:01.300 | The image we used at the end of the last hour was that all of the parts of our lives,
00:03:07.500 | and sex, money, and power are three of them. You could add many more like family or work,
00:03:13.500 | are like planets in a solar system.
00:03:16.500 | And they are designed to be held by the massive beauty and blazing gravitational pull
00:03:24.700 | of a sovereign and all-satisfying God at the center of our lives.
00:03:29.500 | And when He's there and He is all to us and all-satisfying to us,
00:03:34.700 | then the planets are moving perfectly in their beautiful, God-glorifying, soul-satisfying orbit.
00:03:41.300 | Sex, power, money, all circling the sun just the way they were designed.
00:03:47.500 | And nobody has God at the center like that until they are born of God.
00:03:54.100 | So the whole universe is out of order because we replaced the sun with little moons and little asteroids
00:04:00.700 | and little crazy things at the center of the solar system of our lives.
00:04:05.100 | And the planets are flying all out of order.
00:04:07.700 | We're murdering each other and killing each other and destroying each other's sexual lives
00:04:12.100 | and manipulating and controlling and exploiting each other with money and power.
00:04:17.700 | And people wonder, "What's wrong?"
00:04:19.100 | I say, "Well, where is God?"
00:04:22.100 | "Well, that doesn't have anything to do with it."
00:04:24.100 | "It has everything to do with it. He is everything.
00:04:28.100 | And if you treat Him like He's nothing, don't expect anything to work
00:04:32.100 | because He didn't make it that way.
00:04:34.100 | He made the universe and our souls for Him to be at the blazing center."
00:04:41.100 | Amen. This is a little window into everything we do at Desiring God.
00:04:45.100 | By the way, this message excerpt was taken from a message given last summer in a series titled
00:04:50.100 | "Living in the Light with Money, Sex, and Power."
00:04:52.100 | A four-part series, three messages, a Q&A, and all available at DesiringGod.org.
00:04:57.100 | The messages were edited, expanded, and became the new book, "Living in the Light, Money, Sex, and Power."
00:05:03.100 | A nice little hardcover available now on Amazon and downloadable free of charge at DesiringGod.org/books.
00:05:10.100 | Well, John Piper has been studying the Book of Romans for decades,
00:05:15.100 | and this little sermon clip is just one little glimpse into the fruit of those lifelong labors.
00:05:20.100 | Tomorrow, I'm going to ask John Piper to give me a list of his five favorite books on the Book of Romans.
00:05:25.100 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you then.
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