Is My Joy Essential in Glorifying God?
00:00:00.000 | I have two related questions for you today, Pastor John, joining us over the phone today.
00:00:10.240 | Back in 1981, in a sermon on wisdom, you said this, and it's a rather curious thing, so
00:00:15.720 | I want your thoughts on it.
00:00:17.240 | "God has created this world and its moral laws in such a way that the more we choose
00:00:22.240 | to glorify God, the happier we will be."
00:00:27.160 | That sounds different to my ear.
00:00:29.740 | My question is, would you say that same thing today, looking back?
00:00:33.440 | Is this how Christian hedonism should be expressed, that God created this world and its moral
00:00:39.880 | laws in such a way that the more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be?
00:00:46.680 | And while we're at it, what did you think of Kevin Young's recent tweet where he wrote,
00:00:51.880 | "We will only be most satisfied when we delight in God being most glorified."
00:00:59.640 | He seems to want to adjust your favorite sentence.
00:01:02.680 | Yes, yes, he does seem to want to tweak my sentence.
00:01:06.160 | I love Kevin Young.
00:01:07.680 | I'll get to Kevin in a minute, but let's take these questions one at a time.
00:01:13.280 | First, that sentence from 1981, "The more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will
00:01:20.440 | be."
00:01:21.440 | That sentence is almost the flip-flopping of my usual sentence.
00:01:26.080 | I like to say, and I think it's the heart of Christian hedonism, indeed the heart of
00:01:31.640 | the Christian life, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
00:01:39.800 | And that 1981 sentence could be paraphrased, "We are most satisfied in God when God is
00:01:47.960 | most glorified in us."
00:01:51.120 | And would I say that today?
00:01:53.440 | And here's my answer.
00:01:54.440 | As long as we make clear that the "we" that we're talking about is the body of Christ,
00:02:00.200 | those who are born again, the answer is yes, I could say that we are most satisfied in
00:02:08.320 | God when God is most glorified in us.
00:02:10.960 | I could say that.
00:02:12.600 | The mark of being born again is to be sure that we fall out of love with self-promotion
00:02:20.440 | and self-exaltation, and we fall into love with God-promotion and God-exaltation and
00:02:28.000 | God-glorification.
00:02:29.280 | We are glad, we are satisfied when this happens, God being glorified.
00:02:36.280 | In Romans 1:23, Paul shows that the natural man—that is, those who are not born again
00:02:43.080 | by the Spirit through faith in Jesus—the natural man exchanges the glory of the immortal
00:02:49.880 | God for images.
00:02:50.880 | In other words, they don't find their highest treasure and their greatest pleasure in the
00:02:56.160 | glory of God.
00:02:57.160 | And so verse 21 says, "Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him."
00:03:02.680 | They did not glorify Him as God or give thanks to Him.
00:03:06.480 | So one of the fundamental distinctives of the person who is no longer a natural person
00:03:14.120 | but a born-again new creation is that we stop exchanging the glory of God for images like
00:03:21.920 | ourselves, the one we see in the mirror, and we delight in God being glorified.
00:03:27.880 | We love it if our going low can make God go high.
00:03:33.680 | So it's true, it's true that we are most satisfied in God when God is most glorified in us.
00:03:42.140 | It makes a Christian glad to see God magnified.
00:03:48.240 | And the more we see God and His Son magnified and glorified, the more satisfied we feel.
00:03:56.560 | Now, having said, "Yes," having said that I still believe that and can say that's true,
00:04:05.160 | I add this, no, I don't emphasize that when I am describing Christian hedonism.
00:04:13.680 | And here's the reason.
00:04:15.720 | To the average person listening to that sentence that we are more satisfied when God is more
00:04:25.440 | glorified, it communicates that our glorifying God is one thing, and our being satisfied
00:04:35.880 | in God or enjoying God is a separate thing from glorifying God.
00:04:40.760 | It's a response, it's a response to glorifying God.
00:04:46.100 | And as long as people are thinking only in those categories, they'll never understand
00:04:52.000 | Christian hedonism.
00:04:53.000 | They won't understand what it is, and they won't get to the heart of what it means for
00:04:57.840 | them to glorify God.
00:05:01.620 | The primary burden of Christian hedonism is to push and push and push on the truth that
00:05:11.800 | most people don't think about, namely, that their very enjoyment of God as God, the beauty
00:05:21.360 | of God, the loveliness of God, the perfections of God, that their very enjoyment of God is
00:05:28.880 | not only their response to God's being glorified, it is the way they glorify Him.
00:05:36.720 | There it is.
00:05:37.720 | It's the way they glorify Him.
00:05:39.760 | And oh, how I wish I could make this clear and compelling and help people feel the wonder
00:05:47.280 | and the force and the vast implications of this.
00:05:51.960 | So let me say it again.
00:05:53.360 | The primary burden of Christian hedonism, the biblical truth that is so often neglected
00:06:02.000 | that I'm trying to lift and wave like a banner from the housetops is that our joy is not
00:06:10.400 | only—I'm admitting the truth now—is not only a response to seeing God glorified, but
00:06:20.240 | our joy in God is an essential part of the way we glorify God.
00:06:28.200 | Christian hedonism says that by means of enjoying God as God, we make God look valuable.
00:06:38.840 | And if we only say that the exaltation of God as valuable makes us happy, instead of
00:06:47.840 | also saying that our happiness in God is what exalts Him, we haven't yet grasped what is
00:06:55.480 | at the heart of Christian worship and Christian living.
00:07:00.080 | So let me say again that my 1981 sentence is technically true.
00:07:04.680 | Here's what I said, "The more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be."
00:07:11.640 | Technically, yes, true.
00:07:13.760 | But I think it is also misleading because it gives the impression that the only connection
00:07:21.540 | between happiness, my happiness, and glorifying God is that happiness is a response to God
00:07:30.000 | being glorified, when in fact my happiness in God is a means of God's being glorified.
00:07:38.400 | That is the essence of Christian hedonism, that my happiness in God is a means of God
00:07:45.240 | being glorified.
00:07:47.340 | And that is what I hope to clarify and commend with every breath I have for the rest of my
00:07:53.360 | life.
00:07:54.360 | Now, what about my good friend whom I love so much and trust dearly, deeply, Kevin DeYoung's
00:08:04.680 | tinkering with my favorite sentence, "God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied
00:08:10.920 | in Him," by saying—here's what he tweeted—"We will only be most satisfied when we delight
00:08:19.800 | in God being most glorified."
00:08:23.560 | That's tricky in my answer.
00:08:25.920 | I think Kevin's sentence is a version of my 1981 sentence.
00:08:31.920 | It is true.
00:08:34.000 | If we don't delight in God being glorified, we are definitely not going to be most satisfied.
00:08:41.400 | So he's right.
00:08:42.860 | So his sentence is absolutely true, but it does not clarify what I have given my life
00:08:52.720 | to trying to clarify.
00:08:55.320 | So I'll say one last time what the difference is.
00:08:59.200 | It is right and good always to be glad when God's glory is exalted, however it happens.
00:09:10.160 | Yes, and amen.
00:09:12.560 | But the heart of Christian hedonism is more radical and pervasive in its effect on all
00:09:20.480 | we do.
00:09:21.680 | It says that we ourselves will never glorify God as we ought to unless we are satisfied
00:09:32.160 | in Him as we ought to be.
00:09:35.760 | Being satisfied in God as our supreme treasure is not only a response to seeing Him glorified,
00:09:47.560 | but the way He is glorified in us, and that changes everything.
00:09:54.840 | Amen.
00:09:55.840 | This changes everything, and it is the message driving everything that we say and do at DesiringGod.org.
00:10:03.320 | Pastor John, thank you.
00:10:05.640 | And listeners, thank you for supporting our labors.
00:10:07.800 | It is not without tension.
00:10:09.560 | It is not without pushback.
00:10:10.840 | It is not without resistance, and that's okay.
00:10:13.680 | The work goes on, and we appeal to people all across the globe to glorify God by treasuring
00:10:20.360 | God above all else in this world.
00:10:22.960 | Thank you for listening and for partnering with us in the work, and thank you for making
00:10:27.120 | the Ask Pastor John podcast a part of your day.
00:10:29.120 | You can stay current with our new episodes on your phone by subscribing through your
00:10:32.680 | preferred podcast app or even now through the DG YouTube channel.
00:10:36.740 | To search our past episodes or browse our most popular episodes or to send us a question,
00:10:40.480 | do those things at our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:10:43.720 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:10:47.080 | We'll see you back here on Friday.
00:10:49.000 | See you then.
00:10:49.280 | [END]
00:10:54.280 | [BLANK_AUDIO]