How to Find More Joy in God
00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to the podcast, episode number 1700, as we approach the end of our ninth
00:00:10.080 | year.
00:00:11.080 | It's amazing.
00:00:12.760 | We talk a lot about joy in God on this podcast, and when John Piper says, "God is most glorified
00:00:18.360 | in us when we are most satisfied in him," he put the motto in the plural, "us," "we."
00:00:27.440 | And this is intentional.
00:00:28.880 | Christian hedonism is not a me-and-God spiritual nirvana.
00:00:33.800 | To be sure, we experience amazing things alone with God.
00:00:37.280 | But divine joy is always meant to expand, and to expand by being shared.
00:00:43.000 | Back in the fall of 2019, Pastor John traveled to Holland to share his life, his passions,
00:00:47.560 | and what drives him theologically.
00:00:49.680 | And the result was a fascinating testimonial, part of which I want to share with you today.
00:00:54.880 | Here's Pastor John in Holland in 2019 explaining how we can increase our joy in God and why
00:01:00.440 | we need each other to do it.
00:01:04.720 | God is most glorified, most praised in you when you are most satisfied in him.
00:01:13.160 | So praising is the consummation of joy.
00:01:18.200 | It's the completion of joy.
00:01:21.400 | But joy is the essence of praising.
00:01:27.240 | The way I like to say it in English because it sounds so good is, "Prizing, prizing is
00:01:35.680 | the essence of praising."
00:01:38.520 | You prize something, you value it, you are satisfied with it, and that is the heart and
00:01:45.360 | the essence of praising.
00:01:47.120 | Otherwise, praising is hypocritical.
00:01:49.680 | Most people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
00:01:53.600 | They don't prize me, they're just singing songs on Sunday morning because that's what
00:01:57.000 | you're supposed to do.
00:01:59.240 | So that was another huge part, and Jonathan Edwards is the one who gave me the key to
00:02:05.480 | that, because he said, "God glorifies himself not only by communicating himself to our minds,
00:02:14.400 | but by communicating himself to our hearts and being glorified by our rejoicing in him."
00:02:25.800 | And I thought, "I've never heard anybody say that."
00:02:28.920 | So all this has happened.
00:02:30.760 | In these three years, these thoughts, these discoveries were happening, and they've — I've
00:02:35.800 | just never been the same since those three years.
00:02:39.240 | So let me end, re-end with just one more illustration.
00:02:44.240 | So the, the last argument this morning was that God is most glorified in you when you're
00:02:49.040 | most satisfied in Him.
00:02:50.200 | So the glory of God depends upon your pursuing pleasure in God.
00:02:55.920 | It's the essence of it.
00:02:58.000 | The argument just before that was love.
00:03:00.000 | You can't love people if you don't pursue your joy in God, because loving people is
00:03:05.640 | the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.
00:03:10.960 | So let me end like this.
00:03:13.160 | That, that was the last piece that I couldn't figure out.
00:03:18.640 | I saw that God is glorified when I'm satisfied in Him.
00:03:26.280 | Like my wife receiving "I want to be with you, Noelle," that honors her.
00:03:32.560 | "I want to be with you, God.
00:03:34.720 | You make me glad more than anybody."
00:03:37.360 | God is honored when I say that and feel that.
00:03:41.920 | I could not for the life of me figure out how that vertical satisfaction made me a loving
00:03:50.520 | person horizontally.
00:03:53.060 | I knew that there were other religions that had pictures of people sitting with their
00:03:59.840 | arms folded and their legs crossed under a tree experiencing a kind of karma and just
00:04:07.440 | let the world go to hell.
00:04:08.440 | Who cares?
00:04:09.440 | I'm happy.
00:04:10.440 | I'm happy in God.
00:04:12.120 | I don't care if people are dying or suffering.
00:04:15.680 | I knew that couldn't be.
00:04:17.520 | That's not the Bible.
00:04:19.120 | That cannot be.
00:04:21.200 | But what's, what's the link?
00:04:23.000 | And Paul was talking to the elders in Acts 20, to the elders of Ephesus.
00:04:33.840 | And at the end of his talk, he said, "Remember," this is Acts 20 verse 35, there it is, "Remember."
00:04:44.880 | He didn't say forget.
00:04:48.240 | Some people say, "You shouldn't have this motive to be blessed."
00:04:52.160 | And I'll say, "If that were true, he'd say forget."
00:04:54.080 | "Remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive."
00:05:04.080 | More blessed?
00:05:06.360 | More happy?
00:05:08.360 | More satisfied?
00:05:10.520 | More content?
00:05:11.880 | More joyful?
00:05:14.760 | To give my life away?
00:05:17.280 | Die for others?
00:05:19.480 | Suffer for others?
00:05:21.280 | Sacrifice for others?
00:05:22.280 | Yes.
00:05:23.280 | You want more joy?
00:05:26.040 | Die for others.
00:05:28.000 | Live for others.
00:05:29.000 | That's what it says.
00:05:32.520 | It is more blessed, more happy, more content if you will give yourself away.
00:05:39.000 | Don't just fold your arms and sit under a tree and say, "Me and you, God, we're happy.
00:05:45.280 | I don't care about other people."
00:05:48.400 | You won't be happy, not long.
00:05:51.880 | That's not joy in God.
00:05:55.800 | So I discovered that joy in God is a peculiar kind of thing.
00:06:05.200 | It not only honors God, but it also is a kind of pressure inside of me.
00:06:15.600 | It wants to be out.
00:06:17.960 | It wants to draw you in because I — the way it works is that joy in God gets bigger
00:06:26.560 | if I can include you in it so that your joy in God becomes part of my joy in God.
00:06:38.080 | So that's why I came to Hollywood.
00:06:40.960 | I wanted to be happier.
00:06:45.120 | And it would make me very happy.
00:06:47.320 | I mean it is making me happy.
00:06:48.600 | I'm very happy right now just to talk to you about these things.
00:06:53.480 | But if I, if I heard that God took these few words and drew you in to more joy in God that
00:07:05.960 | caused you to lay down your life for the people in your country who don't know Him.
00:07:10.920 | If I heard that a half a dozen of you out of the 5,000 that have been here, my joy would
00:07:22.200 | be greater.
00:07:23.200 | That's what John said, right?
00:07:26.880 | My joy is complete when my children walk in the truth.
00:07:31.080 | And you're not my children, but kind of.
00:07:34.640 | I mean some of you are older than I am, but not many.
00:07:39.400 | So I don't know if I'll ever see you again on earth, but if God, God preserves me, if
00:07:47.240 | He holds me fast and He works in you to bring you into a deeper, sweeter enjoyment of Himself
00:07:57.720 | for the sake of the world and His glory, I will not have come to Holland in vain.
00:08:06.320 | That was John Piper sharing his testimony, the story of his theological awakening back
00:08:10.760 | on November 17th, 2019 at a conference in Holland.
00:08:15.320 | And this entire session is available at the site right now under its title, "How God
00:08:19.680 | Made Me Happy in Him, John Piper's Journey into Joy."
00:08:24.560 | Entire thing is worth a listen or a watch.
00:08:26.320 | I'm pretty sure we have video of this one.
00:08:28.960 | Thanks for listening to today's clip.
00:08:30.440 | Most clips are crowdsourced except for the last three.
00:08:32.680 | I pulled those together myself, but when you find a clip, email it to me.
00:08:36.600 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of where the clip happens in
00:08:40.080 | the audio, and tell me how it impacted your life.
00:08:42.000 | Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:08:47.880 | That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:08:52.080 | Well speaking of core questions of Christian hedonism, next up is a question from Brazil.
00:08:56.720 | Does God command our praise for His sake or for our own sake?
00:09:01.980 | That is a great question.
00:09:03.440 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.
00:09:04.440 | We are joined in studio with Pastor John.
00:09:06.160 | We'll be with you on Friday for that.
00:09:08.160 | We'll see you then.
00:09:08.680 | [END]
00:09:10.680 | 1. What is the Holy Spirit's plan for the world?
00:09:12.680 | 2. What is the Holy Spirit's plan for the world?
00:09:14.680 | [BLANK_AUDIO]