Three Levels of God-Glorifying Emotion
00:00:00.000 | [music]
00:00:05.640 | Pastor John, in light of our previous podcasts, and especially episodes 19 and 21,
00:00:09.640 | there's a question about whether or not we can glorify God in our desire to enjoy Him,
00:00:13.440 | even when we do not feel the joy.
00:00:15.840 | Or do I bring glory to God only when I experience the joy?
00:00:19.040 | In other words, maybe this is the best way to ask the question,
00:00:21.640 | when you say God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him,
00:00:25.240 | would it be more accurate to say that God is most glorified in me
00:00:28.640 | when I look to be most satisfied in Him? Does that make sense?
00:00:32.840 | Yeah, it totally makes sense, and the answer is no,
00:00:35.840 | but it's way more complicated than that.
00:00:38.240 | So let me back up and say yes to the first part.
00:00:41.840 | The first part, I think, was, can I glorify God in my desire to enjoy Him,
00:00:51.040 | even when I don't feel joy? Now, the answer to that is yes.
00:00:54.840 | But here's the reason it doesn't contradict Christian hedonism.
00:01:00.440 | There are levels of worship. There are levels in our emotions
00:01:05.640 | of how we honor God with them. The top level is we're just all there, right?
00:01:12.840 | We are white-hot for God. We're free. We're unhindered.
00:01:17.440 | We're rooted in the truth, and our emotions are free,
00:01:20.440 | and we're able to sing and obey and bless, and we're just all there,
00:01:26.040 | and we love Him, and we're totally serving Him.
00:01:29.640 | And clearly, God is honored when that's the case,
00:01:32.840 | and our emotions are all there, and we're enjoying Him.
00:01:35.840 | Down a level where we really live in and out of that
00:01:39.840 | is when we lack that kind of intensity, which we do most of the time, I would say.
00:01:46.240 | Sorrow for the fact that we don't feel that way honors God.
00:01:52.640 | Sorrow and regret that I'm not there is a way of honoring God,
00:01:59.440 | but that sorrow is an echo of the joy, the seed of which is still in us.
00:02:09.040 | In other words, we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
00:02:14.040 | That taste has become temporarily dull.
00:02:18.640 | It's not having its effect on the tongue of our soul.
00:02:22.040 | We know it. The only reason we feel any regret,
00:02:25.240 | the only reason we desire for more is that we've tasted it,
00:02:29.240 | and the remnant is there in us.
00:02:32.640 | And so I think when I say there needs to be, there should be joy,
00:02:37.240 | I mean that kind of leftover of what was there before
00:02:43.240 | that is enough to make us regret that it's not there,
00:02:46.040 | and long for it to be there, and pray that it be there,
00:02:48.440 | that's joy too, and that honors God too.
00:02:52.640 | And then there are seasons, this would be the third level way down,
00:02:56.240 | is we're so numb that we scarcely have any memory.
00:03:01.440 | We can't even function. This is depression in its worst.
00:03:04.840 | And I think God is honored there if we wait for Him,
00:03:09.440 | and don't curse Him, and don't turn aside to idols.
00:03:12.640 | If we're just waiting, because that ability to wait for Him,
00:03:16.440 | feeling virtually nothing, feeling numb in our soul,
00:03:20.440 | is rooted in something that God has done in us,
00:03:24.240 | and is real and authentic.
00:03:26.240 | So that's my yes to the first question,
00:03:29.040 | but my no to the last question, namely,
00:03:32.040 | shouldn't we revise the mantra,
00:03:37.240 | "God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in Him,"
00:03:40.240 | and rather say, "God is most glorified in us
00:03:43.040 | when we look to be most satisfied in Him," is no.
00:03:47.440 | Because I'm saying, yes, God is glorified
00:03:50.440 | when we look to Him to be most satisfied in Him,
00:03:53.440 | but no, not most satisfied.
00:03:55.840 | In other words, the word "most" there is not to deny what they're affirming.
00:04:00.640 | I'm affirming with them that looking to Him to be satisfied in Him
00:04:04.840 | honors Him, because we've tasted that satisfaction,
00:04:07.640 | and a seed of it remains in us.
00:04:09.640 | But I am saying, don't ever, ever stop there.
00:04:13.640 | God wants us to be hot, not lukewarm.
00:04:18.840 | And so God is more glorified by a person
00:04:22.840 | who sees enough of Christ's beauty
00:04:25.840 | that his whole soul is engaged.
00:04:28.240 | Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.
00:04:32.040 | And therefore, to say, "God is most glorified
00:04:35.640 | when we look to Him to produce that kind of love,"
00:04:38.440 | rather than experiencing that kind of love,
00:04:40.840 | would, I think, be an undermining of the very commandment itself.
00:04:45.240 | So we glorify God in sorrow,
00:04:47.040 | and we glorify God in waiting in the dark seasons,
00:04:49.440 | but God is most glorified in us
00:04:51.640 | when we experience wholesale mind, body, soul joy.
00:04:55.240 | Yes, and I assume that that's the case
00:04:58.440 | because God does away with depression in heaven.
00:05:01.840 | If He were most glorified by our being--
00:05:05.840 | hanging on by our fingernails while we're in a season of darkness,
00:05:09.240 | then I think heaven would be a season of darkness,
00:05:12.640 | and we'd all be hanging on by our fingernails in heaven
00:05:15.440 | because that's the way God gets most glory for eternity.
00:05:18.640 | But that's not.
00:05:20.240 | Now, if somebody wants to really press on this and say,
00:05:25.840 | "All of the universe and all of history
00:05:28.440 | is the way God gets the most glory,"
00:05:31.040 | namely, when the totality of everybody's experience
00:05:35.240 | is folded in and the tapestry is seen as a whole,
00:05:39.840 | then I'm going to say, "Okay, if that's what you mean, yes."
00:05:43.640 | But that's not what we're talking about.
00:05:45.040 | We're talking about where are we all going?
00:05:47.040 | Where are we going so that God gets most glory?
00:05:49.840 | Not the totality of the tapestry,
00:05:53.240 | but rather where are we going?
00:05:55.240 | And where we're going is into an experience of perfection
00:06:00.640 | where God will, at that moment, be most glorified in us,
00:06:04.240 | and that will be a moment of total satisfaction in Him.
00:06:08.040 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:06:10.240 | Send your questions to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:06:14.040 | Please include your first name and your hometown.
00:06:15.640 | You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper
00:06:18.040 | online at desiringgod.org.
00:06:19.840 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.
00:06:22.040 | [end]
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00:06:29.040 | [Code Red Defense]
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