Does Netflix Make Christ More Precious to You?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Everything is loss without Christ, as John Piper made clear in his 2014 sermon
00:00:12.000 | titled "Preparing to Know Christ Deeply Through Suffering."
00:00:15.000 | There he addressed Philippians 3.8, where Paul says that we should count all things loss.
00:00:21.000 | So how do we do this? How do we count all things loss?
00:00:25.000 | Here's what Pastor John had to say.
00:00:28.000 | Jesus said, Luke 14.33, "No one of you can be my disciple who does not renounce all that he has."
00:00:39.000 | Period.
00:00:41.000 | No one, I'll say it again, this is Luke 14.33,
00:00:45.000 | "No one can be my disciple who does not renounce all his possessions."
00:00:55.000 | Now you've got clothes on, probably got a car out in the snowy parking lot,
00:00:59.000 | might have an apartment or a house, and other possessions.
00:01:03.000 | You probably have an iPhone or pewter.
00:01:06.000 | So you own things.
00:01:08.000 | And this text says you can't be a follower of Jesus if you don't renounce those.
00:01:16.000 | So you can check out different translations on that word.
00:01:19.000 | Wouldn't that be the same as Paul saying, "Count them as loss."
00:01:23.000 | So this is mine, right?
00:01:26.000 | I think my wife bought it for me.
00:01:28.000 | This is mine. This coat isn't mine.
00:01:31.000 | This is my preaching coat.
00:01:36.000 | And I should count this as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus.
00:01:43.000 | What would that mean?
00:01:44.000 | What would that mean practically, to regard everything in your life as loss compared to Jesus?
00:01:51.000 | For the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus.
00:01:54.000 | I'll give you four things that I think it means.
00:01:57.000 | Because that's what you should be asking right now.
00:01:59.000 | You say, "Okay, I hear the words. I hear the words.
00:02:01.000 | I'm supposed to renounce everything I have, and I'm supposed to regard everything as loss.
00:02:05.000 | I'm supposed to have this reversal of values.
00:02:07.000 | Practically, I'm going to get in my car.
00:02:10.000 | I'm going to eat the food in my fridge.
00:02:13.000 | I'm going to put on my shoes and slippers.
00:02:17.000 | Practically, what--these are just bullet points that you can think about.
00:02:21.000 | They're worth a chapter in a book.
00:02:24.000 | It means that whatever I'm called upon to choose, whenever I'm called to choose,
00:02:31.000 | between anything and Christ, I choose Christ.
00:02:34.000 | If--it doesn't happen for everything in your life.
00:02:38.000 | You don't have to choose between Christ and everything.
00:02:40.000 | But if you do, you have in your mind, "If I must choose between car and Christ, computer and Christ, wife and Christ, life and Christ,
00:02:50.000 | the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life, I choose Christ."
00:02:56.000 | That's the first thing it means.
00:02:58.000 | That's a resolution in your mind.
00:03:01.000 | You have put in loss over everything in the sense that if you must choose, you choose Christ.
00:03:09.000 | Number two, it means I will deal with all the things in the world.
00:03:19.000 | I will deal with all the things in the world in a way that draws me nearer to Christ through them, or I won't deal.
00:03:27.000 | How you doing with videos?
00:03:31.000 | Spending.
00:03:35.000 | I regard everything as loss in comparison with Christ.
00:03:41.000 | Number two, in the sense that as I wear my coat, drive my car, watch a video,
00:03:50.000 | I will deal with this in a way that draws me more to Christ, not less to Christ.
00:03:58.000 | If the video undermines the pure, sweet fellowship with Jesus, rather than enhancing it, stop watching them.
00:04:12.000 | I'm appalled at what Christians do for entertainment by taking it for granted that if it's in the theater, it should be watched.
00:04:22.000 | I'm appalled, not because I'm a prude, that I have my favorite movies, but because I am ruined by certain scenes.
00:04:37.000 | I won't watch certain good movies because of that scene.
00:04:43.000 | I will not, because Christ is dishonored in my soul, and my mind is contaminated for months,
00:04:53.000 | and He's more precious than the pleasure of the other 120 for minutes.
00:05:01.000 | Come on, let's be Christian through and through. Let's get ready to suffer.
00:05:07.000 | We can't deny ourselves a little bit of entertainment that the world assumes we must have
00:05:15.000 | in order for us to know and admire and sweetly and more deeply enjoy constant fellowship with our Jesus.
00:05:25.000 | How are we going to face the stampede of horses when they come?
00:05:32.000 | That's number two. Use everything to enhance your enjoyment of Jesus, and if it doesn't enhance it, don't do it.
00:05:42.000 | Number three, it means that I always deal with things in the world in a way that shows the world they're not my treasure.
00:05:52.000 | How do you do that? Well, figure that out.
00:05:55.000 | The world is watching you at work as to what is His treasure.
00:06:01.000 | There are ways. Read 1 Corinthians 7 on this, where Paul talks about doing business in the world
00:06:09.000 | and being married and other ways as though we were not. That's pretty provocative.
00:06:17.000 | Be married as though you were not. Do business as though you were not doing it.
00:06:21.000 | Buy things as though you had no possessions. This is crazy, wonderful Christianity.
00:06:27.000 | Using a car, using a coat, using a computer in such a way that people around you assume that's not His treasure.
00:06:36.000 | He uses it, and He has treasures, but that's not His treasure.
00:06:41.000 | Number four, it means that I will lose any or all things that the world can offer without losing my joy.
00:06:55.000 | If by force or by circumstance or by choice any precious thing is ripped out of my hand,
00:07:04.000 | person or product, anything ripped out of my hand, it will not destroy my joy because Christ is my all.
00:07:16.000 | Those are the four things I think it means to renounce all that you have, to count everything as loss,
00:07:22.000 | to experience this reversal that prepares you to suffer well.
00:07:27.000 | Verse 8, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
00:07:40.000 | Beautiful. That was a clip from John Piper's 2014 sermon, "Preparing to Know Christ Deeply Through Suffering,"
00:07:48.000 | sent in to us by Rebecca Payne in Chicago, which is where the sermon was originally delivered.
00:07:54.000 | Thank you, Rebecca, for this clip. The full sermon, of course, is at DesiringGod.org.
00:07:59.000 | And please stop hoarding your favorite Piper clips. Send them in. Share them with us all.
00:08:04.000 | And you can email me the name of the sermon and the clip of when and where in the audio the clip occurs,
00:08:09.000 | and we'll set it up here and give you credit for it.
00:08:12.000 | Tomorrow, Piper returns to tackle a perennially hard question.
00:08:17.000 | If God is sovereign over all sin, how can he still be good? It's a biggie.
00:08:22.000 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John Podcast.
00:08:26.000 | [Pastor John's Podcast - "Preparing to Know Christ Deeply Through Suffering"]
00:08:29.000 | [Pastor John's Podcast - "Preparing to Know Christ Deeply Through Suffering"]
00:08:32.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]