God Does Make Much of Us
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00:00:04.800 | Pastor John, before taking your leave of absence in 2010, you preached an important
00:00:09.320 | sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church titled "How Much Does God Love This Church?"
00:00:13.320 | That was on April 18th of 2010, and the sermon deals with the fact that God does
00:00:18.280 | make much of us as Christians. It would eventually become a new chapter titled
00:00:23.280 | "God Does Make Much of Us" in your recently re-released book, "Brothers, We Are Not
00:00:27.440 | Professionals." Explain for us the background to this sermon and the chapter
00:00:32.040 | and its importance in your thinking that God does make much of us. Was this point
00:00:37.040 | a point of correction to your theology? Was it a deepening or a broadening? How
00:00:41.520 | do you think of it? The sermon, and it was probably the third time I had preached
00:00:47.920 | something like that, I did something like that at Westmont College, and I
00:00:52.560 | did something like that at Passion. There was a whole series of messages. All of
00:00:58.440 | them, I would say, were given not by way of correction, but by way of
00:01:04.840 | clarification and reprioritization. I have really benefited over the years
00:01:13.080 | from feedback, and on this issue, Tom Steller, my associate for 33 years at
00:01:18.720 | Bethlehem, was the most influential because Tom would never let me get away
00:01:23.760 | with saying anything of an exaggerated nature without his drawing my attention
00:01:30.640 | to the other side of the coin, and on this one, there is another side of the
00:01:34.320 | coin. Here's the background. I used to go all over the country saying,
00:01:39.000 | "Which makes you feel more loved by God? That he makes much of you, or that he
00:01:46.680 | enables you at great cost to himself to enjoy making much of him?" It's a pretty
00:01:52.960 | provocative question, pretty thought-provoking. I still like the question. I'll still use
00:01:57.040 | the question. The answer I meant for people to give was true love is not
00:02:04.680 | mainly God's true love. The highest divine love is not mainly God making
00:02:11.040 | much of us, but giving the highest price imaginable in his Son to free us from
00:02:17.160 | our bondage to joy-destroying self so that we could enjoy making much of him
00:02:22.020 | forever. I really believe with all my heart, Tony, that we are created, human
00:02:26.700 | beings are created for joy in God, for admiring God, for being amazed at God, for
00:02:33.680 | standing in awe of God and wondering at God, and God is the source of all that,
00:02:39.520 | and anything that detracts from that I'm going to resist with all my might. We are
00:02:43.840 | created for joy in God. But part of the wonder of God that we take joy in is in
00:02:57.480 | fact possible because he makes much of us and is constituted by his making
00:03:04.160 | much of us. And in that sermon I just rattled off with text—I won't
00:03:08.360 | give the text here—but here's what I meant by God making much of us. He makes
00:03:12.560 | much of us in being pleased with us and commending our lives in the end. Well
00:03:17.360 | done. He makes much of us by making us his fellow heirs with his Son who owns
00:03:23.040 | everything. He makes much of us by having a sit with him at table, and he serves us
00:03:28.680 | according to Luke 12. He makes much of us by appointing us to carry out the
00:03:33.760 | judgment of angels. Good night! What an incredible role that he gives to us.
00:03:39.320 | He makes much of us by ascribing value to us. You're more valuable than the
00:03:43.080 | than the birds, you're the apple of my eye. He makes much of us by giving us a
00:03:47.600 | glorious body like Jesus' body that will reflect his glory like Jesus did, and
00:03:54.040 | he makes much of us most amazingly of all by saying that we will sit with
00:03:58.720 | Christ on his throne, whatever that means. I mean, we will be co-rulers
00:04:06.640 | of the world. So there's just no doubt, and I have never doubted, that God makes
00:04:12.880 | much of us in all these senses. So it's not a change of theology, but it is a
00:04:19.960 | reprioritization because I didn't preach those seven points in those
00:04:26.240 | sermons where I asked that question usually. I left that unsaid, feeling like
00:04:31.760 | the other needed the emphasis, and I have now tried to balance that better by
00:04:38.800 | drawing people's attention to the truth that God does make much of us. But I
00:04:44.520 | ended that sermon by asking the question, "Now why is it that God performs all
00:04:53.040 | these acts of love toward us by continually drawing attention to the
00:04:59.920 | fact that he's doing it for his own glory? He's doing it for his name's sake?"
00:05:04.320 | And my answer to that is that if God made me and myself the end of my goal, my
00:05:14.960 | quest, he wouldn't love me so much as if he made himself the end of my goal and
00:05:22.440 | my quest, because self, no matter how glorified, no matter how made much of,
00:05:28.360 | will never satisfy my heart. I must look away from my made much of self in order
00:05:37.400 | to see God truly and love him as my final treasure. And therefore, I think God
00:05:45.200 | makes much of us precisely so that we will have the greater capacity to enjoy
00:05:52.040 | him. Amen. Thank you, Pastor John. The sermon title again is "How Much Does God
00:05:58.080 | Love This Church?" which was preached on April 18th, 2010. Also see the new chapter,
00:06:03.720 | "God Does Make Much of Us," in the recently re-released book, "Brothers, We Are Not
00:06:08.160 | Professionals." You can find both of those resources at DesiringGod.org,
00:06:11.560 | along with thousands of other free books, articles, and sermons from John Piper. I'm
00:06:16.160 | your host Tony Ranke, thanks for listening.
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