The Heart of Fake Happiness
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Happy Wednesday and welcome to this sermon clip day
00:00:06.920 | on the podcast.
00:00:07.800 | For a long time now, I've been drawn
00:00:09.640 | to a little two-part message Pastor John delivered
00:00:11.760 | in the spring of 2010.
00:00:13.680 | And from this pair of messages,
00:00:15.460 | I wanna share some clips with you on the podcast today
00:00:18.400 | and in the weeks ahead.
00:00:20.060 | Historically, the sermons are interesting.
00:00:23.720 | Pastor John was about to take an eight-month leave
00:00:25.840 | of absence away from the pulpit
00:00:27.640 | to work some things out in his own heart
00:00:29.880 | and in his own family.
00:00:32.040 | Now, we've talked about this leave
00:00:33.240 | and the lessons he would eventually take from it,
00:00:36.040 | particularly in three episodes in APJ 138, 220, and 1227.
00:00:41.040 | As you know from those episodes,
00:00:43.840 | it was a defining season for him.
00:00:47.000 | But first he had to prepare his church for this leave.
00:00:49.240 | And that makes the tone of these sermons interesting too.
00:00:52.760 | These two 2010 sermons are parting words to his church.
00:00:57.560 | And because of that, they carry an urgency
00:01:00.600 | that you're about to hear.
00:01:02.400 | So how does a preacher say goodbye
00:01:04.200 | to his church for eight months?
00:01:06.880 | Well, we get the answer in these two messages.
00:01:08.600 | These messages go deep inside the plan of God for his people.
00:01:12.840 | They go down into the deepest foundation of our very joy.
00:01:17.840 | And in that context, here's the first interesting clip
00:01:20.320 | I wanna feature on APJ.
00:01:21.600 | It gets right at the heart
00:01:22.720 | of what drives John Piper and his ministry.
00:01:25.840 | How is he wired?
00:01:27.720 | Why does he do ministry the way he does it?
00:01:30.520 | Without further introduction,
00:01:31.800 | here he is to explain on April 18th, 2010,
00:01:35.160 | two weeks out from his ministry leave,
00:01:37.640 | speaking of his recent travels and what makes him tick.
00:01:41.600 | Here he is.
00:01:43.280 | - Almost always when I leave the church
00:01:46.440 | and go away to speak somewhere,
00:01:48.200 | I give messages that are the overflow
00:01:50.760 | of things I've done here.
00:01:52.480 | I don't generally make new things up to say anywhere else.
00:01:55.960 | I just try to apply to others what I've been thinking about
00:01:59.800 | and applying to you over the years.
00:02:03.000 | However, at the end of February, I went to Seattle
00:02:07.800 | and on the way to Seattle was on the plane.
00:02:10.760 | We had about four hour flight
00:02:11.800 | and prayed earnestly that God would give me a message
00:02:16.360 | for them.
00:02:18.320 | And there was in my mind churning this issue
00:02:21.320 | of how to say in a fresh way,
00:02:23.600 | something I've said over and over again
00:02:25.840 | for who knows how many years.
00:02:28.360 | And I delivered that message three times.
00:02:32.440 | I was crafting it in my head and then trying it out
00:02:35.600 | on all those people for you.
00:02:37.160 | I wanted to get it right
00:02:40.360 | so that when I tried to bring clarity here,
00:02:43.600 | I wouldn't be stumbling around
00:02:44.920 | like I did in a couple of those messages, I think.
00:02:49.760 | So here's the thing that needs clarification evidently.
00:02:52.920 | And this goes out of some conversations I've had
00:02:55.600 | and those of you who conversed with me
00:02:57.680 | will know who I'm talking about.
00:02:59.520 | I appreciate them.
00:03:00.440 | The question is that I've asked audiences
00:03:04.280 | for 10 years maybe is this,
00:03:07.160 | do you feel more loved by God when he makes much of you
00:03:12.160 | or when he at great cost to his son
00:03:20.160 | frees you to enjoy making much of him forever?
00:03:24.720 | I've just asked that everywhere I've gone
00:03:27.800 | all over the country for 10 years or so.
00:03:30.760 | Do you feel more loved by God because he makes much of you
00:03:35.760 | or that at great cost to his son,
00:03:41.520 | he frees you and empowers you
00:03:45.680 | to enjoy making much of him forever?
00:03:49.960 | I like that question a lot.
00:03:53.800 | I still do.
00:03:55.720 | And I'll try to explain why.
00:03:57.720 | The aim of that question was never
00:04:02.760 | and is not now to deny that God makes much of us.
00:04:07.200 | He does.
00:04:09.680 | And we'll get to that shortly.
00:04:12.080 | The aim has been to help people
00:04:17.040 | relocate the bottom,
00:04:21.520 | the deepest foundation of their joy
00:04:26.080 | from self to God.
00:04:28.320 | So let me try to explain and help you understand
00:04:34.880 | something that makes me tick
00:04:38.440 | and why I speak the way I do about things like this.
00:04:42.240 | Why do you go around the country saying such things,
00:04:45.760 | shake people up like that
00:04:47.160 | and cause some of them to misunderstand?
00:04:50.520 | And here's the bottom line.
00:04:53.440 | And even this I fear is gonna be misunderstood.
00:04:56.600 | So I'm gonna jump on a clarification of it
00:04:58.280 | as soon as I say it.
00:04:59.280 | I am more concerned, this has been true for 30 years.
00:05:05.960 | I am more concerned about nominal,
00:05:10.240 | hell-bound Christians
00:05:12.920 | who feel loved by God
00:05:16.360 | than I am about genuine heaven-bound Christians
00:05:22.880 | who don't feel loved by God.
00:05:24.600 | Let me say it again.
00:05:28.640 | I don't know why,
00:05:31.920 | but as I just do what I feel like doing
00:05:34.960 | in the Word and in preaching,
00:05:36.800 | I feel more concern
00:05:40.080 | for nominal, hell-bound,
00:05:44.120 | church-going Christians who feel loved by God
00:05:48.280 | than I do about genuine, authentic,
00:05:54.080 | born-again, heaven-bound Christians
00:05:58.240 | who don't feel loved by God.
00:06:02.320 | Okay, now lest any of you poor souls
00:06:05.800 | who don't feel loved by God,
00:06:07.160 | and there are many of you,
00:06:08.680 | think that means he doesn't care about us.
00:06:14.080 | He just said so.
00:06:16.280 | I didn't.
00:06:17.120 | I care really deeply about that issue.
00:06:22.400 | But if I have to rank who I wanna jostle and bring,
00:06:29.240 | I wanna rescue people.
00:06:32.680 | Who are totally deceived
00:06:34.920 | about whether God loves them or not, savingly.
00:06:40.240 | But I really, really care about my family, you,
00:06:47.080 | and whether you live in a halfway Christian life,
00:06:52.160 | knowing he loves you and never feeling it.
00:06:55.160 | And really saved, really saved,
00:06:59.120 | because there's that seed deep down,
00:07:02.000 | you'd die for him in a minute.
00:07:05.280 | And you wish, you just wish you could marvel at it more.
00:07:10.280 | So don't hear me saying,
00:07:16.320 | I don't care about that,
00:07:17.640 | or I don't wanna invest in it.
00:07:20.280 | This sermon is that investment.
00:07:23.280 | And I hope I can do more
00:07:25.120 | without letting the other one go.
00:07:29.500 | So what I'm doing in explaining what makes me tick
00:07:32.380 | is try to give a perspective
00:07:34.580 | on why I emphasize what I emphasize.
00:07:37.460 | There are millions of nominal Christians
00:07:41.980 | who are not born again,
00:07:43.980 | and who believe God loves them,
00:07:45.620 | and are on their way to hell.
00:07:47.260 | And the difference between them and a born again believer
00:07:52.940 | is what's at the bottom of what makes them happy.
00:07:57.040 | As you penetrate down, down, down, down, down, down,
00:08:02.040 | to what makes them happy,
00:08:05.100 | and you get to the bottom,
00:08:06.960 | it's different for a born again person,
00:08:10.320 | and an unborn again person.
00:08:12.140 | Millions of nominal Christians
00:08:15.680 | have never experienced a fundamental change
00:08:18.640 | in the foundation of their happiness.
00:08:20.680 | They haven't experienced it.
00:08:24.420 | They go to church for other reasons.
00:08:26.860 | Instead, they've absorbed the notion
00:08:29.620 | that becoming a Christian means
00:08:31.940 | turning to Jesus
00:08:35.820 | to get what you always wanted
00:08:38.620 | before you were born again.
00:08:39.980 | No change in what you want.
00:08:42.580 | No change in the bottom,
00:08:45.840 | the foundation of what thrills you.
00:08:48.700 | Just get it from a new place.
00:08:51.340 | The baggage in the hotel room in the same,
00:08:53.420 | got a different bellhop.
00:08:55.380 | The meal stays the same, got a different butler.
00:08:58.220 | And they think they're Christian,
00:09:01.180 | and they feel really loved
00:09:03.820 | because he's producing.
00:09:06.140 | My life is going better.
00:09:10.140 | They want a happy marriage,
00:09:14.660 | so they turn to him to get it.
00:09:16.720 | They want peace of conscience,
00:09:18.840 | so they turn to him to get it.
00:09:21.300 | They want freedom from guilt feelings,
00:09:23.860 | so they turn to him to get it.
00:09:25.720 | They want escape from hell,
00:09:27.860 | so they turn to him to get it.
00:09:29.300 | And every unregenerate person on the planet
00:09:31.800 | wants those things.
00:09:32.900 | You don't have to be born again to want out of hell.
00:09:35.580 | You don't have to be born again to want a good marriage.
00:09:37.500 | You don't have to be born again to want any of those things.
00:09:40.660 | So what's new?
00:09:42.740 | Got a different bellhop, different butler,
00:09:45.140 | a different servant to give me what I want.
00:09:50.420 | I'm concerned about those people.
00:09:53.100 | There's some here.
00:09:54.900 | I would suspect in this room not as many as the other kind.
00:09:59.180 | I think God will hold me more accountable
00:10:03.480 | for trying to help those people wake up
00:10:06.460 | than for helping his precious children feel more of him.
00:10:11.460 | Though this sermon is about that,
00:10:13.700 | and I'm just setting the stage
00:10:14.840 | for why I talk the way I talk.
00:10:16.660 | I haven't even started yet.
00:10:18.700 | [audience laughing]
00:10:21.700 | In other words, they would say,
00:10:26.460 | these people I'm so concerned about,
00:10:28.380 | we have desires and we turn to Jesus to get them met.
00:10:35.180 | And he is so loving to meet them.
00:10:41.900 | No change at the bottom, no change in your cravings.
00:10:48.460 | In what makes you most deeply happy.
00:10:51.320 | No change in the decisive foundation.
00:10:55.460 | Just shop at a new store.
00:10:56.980 | That's not the new birth.
00:11:01.080 | It's not having, the new birth is not having
00:11:05.660 | all the same desires that you had as an unregenerate person
00:11:09.540 | and then getting them from a new source.
00:11:11.300 | That's not the new birth.
00:11:12.620 | The new birth changes the bottom,
00:11:17.000 | changes the root, changes the foundation
00:11:21.220 | of what makes us happy.
00:11:23.180 | Self at the bottom is replaced by Jesus.
00:11:28.180 | Treasuring being made much of,
00:11:32.900 | at the bottom is replaced by treasuring Jesus.
00:11:39.020 | Everything changes.
00:11:42.500 | We don't perfectly express these changes.
00:11:44.820 | That's why I can be so confident
00:11:47.000 | that so many non-delighters are saved.
00:11:51.560 | What makes the born again person glad
00:11:55.560 | is not at the bottom that they have God's gifts,
00:11:59.200 | but that they have God.
00:12:00.580 | That's the key way to see it.
00:12:04.000 | You listen for it in the way they talk,
00:12:08.000 | the way they pray, in the way they speak
00:12:12.720 | to each other and to God about,
00:12:16.360 | are they most excited about his gifts
00:12:20.140 | or are they most excited about him?
00:12:22.620 | Do they long for the people they love to see him,
00:12:26.300 | admire him, glorify him, live in him, hallow his name,
00:12:31.300 | or do they only ask for and seek food and clothing
00:12:36.460 | and job and the things the world wants?
00:12:42.640 | It's not wrong to pray for those things.
00:12:45.620 | It's just what the world prays for.
00:12:47.360 | It's not wrong to want those things.
00:12:49.760 | It's just what the world wants.
00:12:51.080 | There's no evidence in being born again
00:12:52.800 | that you want what the world wants and get it from God.
00:12:55.560 | Christians who are truly on their way to heaven
00:12:59.800 | and don't feel loved by God
00:13:01.800 | are in a different category than that.
00:13:06.200 | - Powerful, and to introduce one other topic,
00:13:08.640 | a related one here,
00:13:10.120 | this is also precisely why the prosperity gospel fails
00:13:13.820 | because it requires no new affections.
00:13:16.500 | It simply feeds those old spiritually dead affections
00:13:20.140 | for wealth and health and prosperity.
00:13:23.340 | So when you hear Pastor John condemn the prosperity gospel,
00:13:25.700 | this is one of those key themes as to why he does so.
00:13:29.140 | This was from John Piper's April 18, 2010 sermon
00:13:32.460 | on Psalm 79 titled, "How Much Does God Love This Church?"
00:13:37.460 | The whole thing is online.
00:13:40.100 | I found this clip, but if you find one,
00:13:42.380 | email it to me, give me your name, hometown,
00:13:44.260 | the sermon title and timestamp
00:13:45.740 | of where the clip happens in the audio
00:13:47.220 | and make a note of what stands out to you.
00:13:49.460 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email
00:13:51.340 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:13:54.980 | It's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:13:58.420 | Well, what are church traditions?
00:14:02.420 | Do we need them?
00:14:04.140 | The Apostle Paul says, "Yes, we do."
00:14:06.500 | And we'll look at why next time.
00:14:08.420 | I'm your host, Torrey Ranke,
00:14:09.520 | and we are joined in studio again
00:14:10.960 | with Pastor John on Friday.
00:14:12.720 | We'll see you then.
00:14:13.620 | (upbeat music)
00:14:16.200 | (upbeat music)
00:14:18.780 | [BLANK_AUDIO]