What’s the Deepest Desire of My Heart?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - What's the deepest longing of the human heart?

00:00:07.760 | What's your deepest desire?

00:00:09.900 | What's the thing you want most?

00:00:13.020 | There's an answer to that question

00:00:14.580 | and it's the focus of today's episode.

00:00:17.260 | During the month of December leading up to Christmas,

00:00:18.980 | I wanna do something we've never done before.

00:00:21.380 | I've convinced Pastor John to read a few chapters

00:00:24.140 | from his excellent book, "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ."

00:00:28.020 | I love that little book and this is my nudge

00:00:30.580 | to see if Pastor John will read the whole thing

00:00:33.060 | as his first audio book.

00:00:35.000 | To that end, he recorded one chapter for us,

00:00:37.380 | for you, the APJ audience.

00:00:38.980 | You're hearing it for the very first time.

00:00:40.820 | So here now is Pastor John reading chapter one

00:00:43.100 | from his wonderful book, "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ,"

00:00:46.900 | a chapter that answers the question,

00:00:48.860 | what is the deepest longing of my heart?

00:00:51.680 | - The heavens declare the glory of God.

00:00:56.500 | Psalm 19, one.

00:00:58.040 | God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness,"

00:01:03.940 | has shown in our hearts to give the light

00:01:06.540 | of the knowledge of the glory of God

00:01:08.300 | in the face of Jesus Christ.

00:01:10.900 | Second Corinthians 4, six.

00:01:13.040 | Chapter one, "Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God,"

00:01:18.780 | the ultimate aim of Jesus Christ.

00:01:22.100 | The created universe is all about glory.

00:01:25.780 | The deepest longing of the human heart

00:01:27.840 | and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth

00:01:31.300 | are summed up in this, the glory of God.

00:01:35.140 | The universe was made to show it

00:01:37.100 | and we were made to see it and savor it.

00:01:40.160 | Nothing less will do,

00:01:42.340 | which is why the world is as disordered

00:01:45.480 | and as dysfunctional as it is.

00:01:47.920 | We have exchanged the glory of God for other things.

00:01:52.920 | Romans 1, 23.

00:01:55.300 | "The heavens declare the glory of God," Psalm 19, one.

00:02:00.300 | That is why all the universe exists.

00:02:03.800 | It's all about glory.

00:02:07.200 | The Hubble Space Telescope

00:02:09.780 | sends back infrared images of faint galaxies,

00:02:13.120 | perhaps 12 billion light years away,

00:02:17.060 | 12 billion times six trillion miles.

00:02:21.100 | Even within our Milky Way,

00:02:23.420 | there are stars so great as to defy description,

00:02:27.620 | like Eta Carinae,

00:02:29.620 | which is five million times brighter than our sun.

00:02:34.340 | Sometimes people stumble over this vastness

00:02:37.740 | in relation to the apparent insignificance of man.

00:02:41.900 | It does seem to make us infinitesimally small,

00:02:46.140 | but the meaning of this magnitude is not mainly about us.

00:02:50.500 | It's about God.

00:02:52.340 | "The heavens declare the glory of God," says the Scripture.

00:02:57.140 | The reason for wasting so much space on a universe

00:03:02.140 | to house a speck of humanity

00:03:06.700 | is to make a point about our maker, not us.

00:03:11.460 | Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these stars.

00:03:18.500 | He who brings out their host by number,

00:03:21.340 | calling them all by name,

00:03:23.740 | by the greatness of his might,

00:03:26.100 | and because he is strong in power,

00:03:28.780 | not one of them is missing.

00:03:31.140 | Isaiah 40, 26.

00:03:34.460 | "The deepest longing of the human heart

00:03:37.500 | "is to know and enjoy the glory of God.

00:03:41.580 | "We were made for this.

00:03:43.820 | "Bring my sons from afar

00:03:46.460 | "and my daughters from the end of the earth,

00:03:48.700 | "whom I created for my glory," says the Lord.

00:03:53.140 | Isaiah 43, 6 and 7.

00:03:56.100 | "To see it, to savor it, and to show it.

00:04:00.740 | "That is why we exist.

00:04:03.620 | "The untracked, unimaginable stretches

00:04:07.180 | "of the created universe are a parable

00:04:10.100 | "about the inexhaustible riches of his glory."

00:04:13.700 | Romans 9, 23.

00:04:15.660 | "The physical eye is meant to say to the spiritual eye,

00:04:20.660 | "'Not this, but the maker of this

00:04:23.820 | "'is the desire of your soul.'"

00:04:26.540 | St. Paul said, "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

00:04:31.540 | Romans 5, 2.

00:04:32.660 | Or even more precisely,

00:04:34.740 | he said that we were prepared beforehand for glory.

00:04:39.220 | Romans 9, 23.

00:04:41.220 | "This is why we were created,

00:04:44.020 | "that he might make known the riches of his glory

00:04:48.380 | "for vessels of mercy."

00:04:50.260 | Romans 9, 23.

00:04:52.060 | "The ache of every human heart is an ache for this,

00:04:57.060 | "but we suppress it and do not see fit

00:05:01.460 | "to have God in our knowledge."

00:05:03.100 | Romans 1, 28.

00:05:04.660 | "Therefore, the entire creation has fallen into disorder."

00:05:09.660 | The most prominent example of this in the Bible

00:05:13.220 | is the disordering of our sexual lives.

00:05:16.240 | Paul says that the exchange of the glory of God

00:05:21.060 | for other things is the root cause

00:05:23.740 | for the homosexual and heterosexual disordering

00:05:27.340 | of our relationships.

00:05:30.500 | Their women exchanged natural relations

00:05:33.740 | for those that are contrary to nature.

00:05:36.500 | The men likewise gave up natural relations with women

00:05:41.140 | and were consumed with passion for one another.

00:05:43.860 | Romans 1, 26 and 27.

00:05:46.700 | "If we exchange God's glory for lesser things,

00:05:51.340 | "he gives us up to lived out parables of depravity,

00:05:56.180 | "the other exchanges that mirror in our misery

00:06:01.660 | "the ultimate sellout."

00:06:03.980 | The point is this.

00:06:05.160 | We were made to know and treasure the glory of God.

00:06:10.580 | Above all things.

00:06:12.620 | And when we trade that treasure for images,

00:06:16.380 | everything is disordered.

00:06:19.260 | The sun of God's glory was made to shine

00:06:23.500 | at the center of the solar system of our soul.

00:06:27.060 | And when it does, all the planets of our life

00:06:30.660 | are held in their proper orbit.

00:06:33.060 | But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart.

00:06:38.340 | The healing of the soul begins

00:06:41.020 | by restoring the glory of God to its flaming,

00:06:45.260 | all attracting place at the center.

00:06:49.240 | We are all starved for the glory of God, not self.

00:06:54.240 | No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem.

00:07:00.280 | Why do we go?

00:07:01.860 | Because there is greater healing for the soul

00:07:05.840 | in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self.

00:07:10.840 | Indeed, what could be more ludicrous

00:07:15.400 | in a vast and glorious universe like this

00:07:19.700 | than a human being on the speck called Earth,

00:07:23.020 | standing in front of a mirror,

00:07:24.940 | trying to find significance in his own self image.

00:07:29.940 | It is a great sadness

00:07:32.240 | that this is the gospel of the modern world.

00:07:35.660 | But it is not the Christian gospel.

00:07:38.840 | Into the darkness of petty self-preoccupation

00:07:43.840 | has shown the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

00:07:49.020 | who is the image of God, 2 Corinthians 4.4.

00:07:54.420 | The Christian gospel is about the glory of Christ,

00:07:58.220 | not about me.

00:08:00.100 | And when it is in some measure about me,

00:08:04.140 | it is not about my being made much of by God,

00:08:07.420 | but about God mercifully enabling me to enjoy

00:08:11.720 | making much of him forever.

00:08:14.240 | What was the most loving thing Jesus could do for us?

00:08:20.420 | What was the endpoint, the highest good of the gospel?

00:08:25.620 | Redemption, forgiveness, justification,

00:08:31.260 | reconciliation, sanctification, adoption,

00:08:36.260 | are not all of these great wonders

00:08:41.380 | simply means to something greater,

00:08:44.520 | something final,

00:08:46.580 | something that Jesus asked his father to give us.

00:08:50.080 | Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me

00:08:57.060 | may be with me where I am to see my glory

00:09:02.020 | that you have given me, John 17.24.

00:09:06.820 | The Christian gospel is the gospel of the glory of Christ

00:09:13.040 | because its final aim is that we would see and savor

00:09:18.140 | and show the glory of Christ.

00:09:23.540 | For this is none other than the glory of God.

00:09:28.540 | He is the radiance of the glory of God

00:09:31.640 | and the exact imprint of his nature, Hebrews 1.3.

00:09:36.140 | He is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1.15.

00:09:40.940 | When the light of the gospel shines in our hearts,

00:09:45.020 | it is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

00:09:49.060 | in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4.6.

00:09:53.900 | And when we rejoice in hope of the glory of God,

00:09:57.900 | Romans 5.2, that hope is our blessed hope,

00:10:02.900 | the appearing of the glory of our great God

00:10:06.900 | and savior, Jesus Christ, Titus 2.13.

00:10:11.900 | The glory of Christ is the glory of God.

00:10:17.860 | In one sense, Christ laid the glory of God aside

00:10:22.300 | when he came.

00:10:23.240 | And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence

00:10:27.600 | with the glory that I had with you

00:10:30.500 | before the world existed, John 17.5.

00:10:33.960 | But in another sense, Christ manifested the glory of God

00:10:39.820 | in his coming.

00:10:41.740 | The word became flesh and dwelt among us,

00:10:44.420 | and we have seen his glory,

00:10:46.580 | glory as of the only Son from the Father,

00:10:49.380 | full of grace and truth, John 1.14.

00:10:53.860 | Therefore, in the gospel, we see and savor

00:10:58.860 | the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,

00:11:05.100 | 2 Corinthians 4.6.

00:11:08.380 | And this kind of seeing is the healing

00:11:11.740 | of our disordered lives.

00:11:14.340 | We all, with unveiled face,

00:11:16.860 | beholding the glory of the Lord,

00:11:19.140 | are being transformed into the same image

00:11:23.020 | from one degree of glory to another, 2 Corinthians 3.18.

00:11:27.960 | A prayer.

00:11:29.840 | O Father of glory, this is the cry of our hearts,

00:11:35.660 | to be changed from one degree of glory to another

00:11:40.900 | until in the resurrection, at the last trumpet,

00:11:44.000 | we are completely conformed to the image of your Son,

00:11:46.740 | Jesus Christ, our Lord.

00:11:48.900 | Until then, we long to grow in grace

00:11:52.700 | and in the knowledge of our Lord,

00:11:54.180 | especially the knowledge of his glory.

00:11:58.060 | We want to see it as clearly as we see the Son

00:12:02.420 | and to savor it as deeply as our most desired pleasure.

00:12:06.320 | O merciful Father, incline our hearts to your word

00:12:10.620 | and the wonders of your glory.

00:12:13.660 | Wean us off our obsession with trivial things.

00:12:18.420 | Open the eyes of our hearts to see each day

00:12:21.840 | what the created universe is telling us about your glory.

00:12:25.300 | Enlighten our minds to see the glory of your Son

00:12:28.900 | in the gospel.

00:12:30.820 | We believe that you are the all-glorious one

00:12:34.400 | and that there is none like you.

00:12:36.780 | Help our unbelief.

00:12:39.860 | Forgive the wandering of our affections

00:12:42.100 | and the undue attention we give to lesser things.

00:12:45.120 | Have mercy on us for Christ's sake

00:12:48.860 | and fulfill in us your great design

00:12:52.300 | to display the glory of your grace.

00:12:55.960 | In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

00:13:00.160 | - Yeah, amen.

00:13:02.140 | Wean us from our obsession with trivial things.

00:13:04.980 | A daily prayer that I need.

00:13:06.560 | That is chapter one from Pastor John's book,

00:13:08.420 | "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ."

00:13:11.220 | And wherever you're listening in the midst of your day,

00:13:13.220 | thanks for joining us.

00:13:14.240 | Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John

00:13:16.540 | in your favorite podcast app, in YouTube or in Spotify.

00:13:20.380 | And for our episode archive

00:13:21.860 | or to submit a question of your own,

00:13:23.480 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:13:28.480 | Next up, a missions question.

00:13:30.380 | Pastor John is in the studio.

00:13:31.620 | I'll ask him if the nations will be reached

00:13:33.560 | before Christ returns or after he returns

00:13:36.900 | and how does Revelation 14, six fit into the mix?

00:13:41.020 | It's a good question.

00:13:41.860 | Up next time, I'm your host Tony Reinhke.

00:13:43.420 | We'll see you on Friday.

00:13:44.620 | (upbeat music)

00:13:47.200 | (upbeat music)

00:13:49.780 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What’s the Deepest Desire of My Heart?

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