How Do I Make Christian Hedonism My Own?

00:00:00.000 | Good Monday morning everyone.

00:00:06.160 | Well we are Christian Hedonists and that's something we have dedicated several episodes

00:00:10.640 | to explaining on the podcast.

00:00:12.000 | You can look back, for example, on APJ's 958, 1201, and 1281, for example.

00:00:19.200 | And for those of you who want to teach this glorious truth, how do we take Christian Hedonism

00:00:23.480 | and make it our own?

00:00:25.840 | Or even more broadly asked, how do any of us take the key teachings of others and incorporate

00:00:30.480 | them into our ministry so that we're not simply mimicking our teachers?

00:00:35.600 | That's an important question faced by any budding Christian communicator, writer, teacher,

00:00:40.280 | or preacher.

00:00:41.280 | And it's a question today in the inbox.

00:00:43.800 | Dear Tony and Pastor John, hello to you both.

00:00:46.620 | My name is Gabriel, an international student studying in Australia.

00:00:49.960 | And I praise God for your ministry and for the realities you have pointed to in the Bible,

00:00:55.840 | especially in opening my eyes to the connection between our joy and God's sovereign glory.

00:01:02.080 | My question is this.

00:01:04.680 | How do I make Christian Hedonism my own, especially when it comes to teaching?

00:01:08.920 | I'm young, but I hope to teach one day, maybe even preach the word.

00:01:12.440 | But I often find that I'm checking myself to see if I'm simply copying what you, Pastor

00:01:16.560 | John, say.

00:01:18.000 | I see that the realities are there in the text and in the Bible, but your ministry is

00:01:21.720 | so thorough and wholesome, I almost feel I can't say anything without echoing you.

00:01:27.720 | Perhaps I think incorrectly.

00:01:29.920 | How can we carry on encouraging, teaching, preaching this reality in our own voice?

00:01:34.360 | I'd be honored to hear your thoughts.

00:01:38.240 | Gabriel's question touches on a tension that every teacher feels when he has found something

00:01:47.400 | true and precious in God's word and desires that it be seen and loved by others and that

00:01:56.400 | those others, generation after generation, preserve and pass on the truth and the preciousness

00:02:05.640 | of the reality that he has seen.

00:02:08.480 | And the tension is this.

00:02:10.920 | On the one hand, we want the very thing we have seen in Scripture to be preserved and

00:02:19.160 | not distorted or corrupted or lost.

00:02:24.280 | And on the other hand, we know that if it is to be preserved for generations, the people

00:02:33.240 | that preserve it must have a grasp of it that is deeper than simply imitating the words

00:02:44.320 | of those who taught them the reality, showed them the reality.

00:02:49.840 | So there's a tension between holding fast to what is fixed and having freedom to give

00:02:56.560 | fresh and vital expression and application to that fixed reality.

00:03:04.920 | So Gabriel has discovered the truth and the beauty of what we call Christian hedonism,

00:03:11.960 | namely the thought and the life that flow from the truth that God is most glorified

00:03:21.000 | in us when we are most satisfied in him.

00:03:25.880 | And as he grows in his understanding and seeks to share with others what he's seen, he finds

00:03:34.440 | himself sounding like his teacher, like me in particular.

00:03:39.440 | And he wonders if there are steps he can take so that he isn't what I call, he didn't use

00:03:46.920 | this language, this is my language, what I would call a second-hander, a mimic.

00:03:53.800 | We don't want him to be that.

00:03:54.940 | He doesn't want to be that.

00:03:56.440 | Now, what would I point out to Gabriel first if he's going to be helped beyond being a

00:04:05.680 | second-hander?

00:04:08.720 | What I would point out to Gabriel first is that he's probably at a particular point in

00:04:14.960 | an inevitable process that moves from discovery through imitation, through the maturity of

00:04:26.020 | creative expression, and onto more and more discovery and so on.

00:04:31.060 | So his question is really, I think, how can I move along in a natural process that I'm

00:04:41.740 | in?

00:04:42.740 | Let me use an analogy.

00:04:45.340 | Compare the mystery and the wonder of how little tiny children learn language.

00:04:53.380 | The first thing they do is listen, look, and feel.

00:04:57.180 | Listen, look, and feel.

00:04:58.980 | So you get this two-week-old baby, listen, look, feel, with some very uncreative crying

00:05:06.180 | to express his inarticulate desires.

00:05:09.380 | And then one day, they echo back, "Mama, dada."

00:05:14.700 | You're just burst with thrill that they made the connection between the reality of a person

00:05:26.140 | and a word coming out of their mouth, "Mama, dada."

00:05:32.260 | And all of it right now is simply imitation, echoing, copying.

00:05:39.120 | But oh, how real it is, right?

00:05:41.740 | It's real.

00:05:42.740 | You don't say, "Oh, he's just copying me."

00:05:46.640 | This is an awesome point in his development.

00:05:51.020 | And then within a year or so, an absolutely astonishing thing happens.

00:05:57.860 | All of the reality that this baby has been processing quietly, eyes, ears, touch, suddenly

00:06:08.300 | comes together miraculously, it seems, in his mind, and out comes a sentence, two words,

00:06:20.140 | three words, which that baby put together out of his own little head, imitating nobody.

00:06:30.700 | Nobody had just spoken that sentence to him.

00:06:34.780 | It emerged out of his own mind, absolutely amazing.

00:06:40.060 | And the rest of their lives, they'll be turning observed and desired reality into sentences,

00:06:48.740 | some of which have never been spoken in the history of the world.

00:06:52.580 | Amazing.

00:06:53.940 | Now that pattern of listening, then echoing, then creating, and ongoing discovery is the

00:07:02.620 | way we learn for the rest of our lives.

00:07:05.020 | So my first piece of advice for Gabriel is don't begrudge a season of discovery and imitation.

00:07:14.420 | When someone helps you see a reality that you hadn't seen before, it is inevitable that

00:07:21.220 | you will describe the reality in the words of the one who helped you see it.

00:07:25.900 | That's normal.

00:07:26.900 | It's good.

00:07:28.540 | But you are right to be concerned that you should not remain in this early phase of understanding

00:07:37.020 | and expression.

00:07:38.340 | So how do you move on to find your own voice and not lose the reality?

00:07:47.140 | So my second piece of advice is that you practice pressing through language to reality, that

00:07:56.340 | you never settle for mere words, not my words, not even Bible words.

00:08:03.340 | When the Bible speaks, uses words, you press into those words and through those words to

00:08:11.340 | the reality, the reality of love, the reality of joy, the reality of faith, the reality

00:08:18.740 | of Christ, the reality of God.

00:08:21.540 | These are not mere words.

00:08:24.660 | This is the rock bottom necessity of not remaining a child or a second hander.

00:08:32.800 | Have you tasted the reality expressed in the words of your teacher or the scriptures?

00:08:39.740 | That's what everyone should ask.

00:08:42.420 | Have I tasted the reality or is it just words?

00:08:46.460 | Before you can find your authentic voice, you must have an authentic experience of what

00:08:53.740 | you are trying to give voice to.

00:08:57.500 | This is a matter of earnest prayer, earnest study.

00:09:01.540 | "Oh Lord, open my eyes that I may behold reality, wonderful things out of your word."

00:09:11.220 | The third piece of advice I would give is that you not only press through your teacher's

00:09:17.700 | words to that reality, but that you be constantly on the lookout in Scripture for more reality,

00:09:27.780 | realities that when they are brought together with the reality of Christian hedonism will

00:09:34.300 | cause you to see it in fresh light and the diamond will reveal more of its facets than

00:09:43.500 | you knew existed, perhaps even more than your teacher has ever seen.

00:09:50.420 | And the fourth piece of advice I would give is make a studied effort to find fresh, faithful,

00:10:01.220 | compelling, culturally appropriate language to describe the reality that you have come

00:10:08.420 | to love.

00:10:10.060 | This studied effort at creative expression will almost certainly go off the rails if

00:10:20.100 | the biblical reality is not clearly seen and firmly rooted in Scripture and gladly embraced

00:10:29.220 | with your heart and your mind.

00:10:31.660 | Without this, the effort at creativity will almost certainly degenerate into creating

00:10:38.800 | new reality rather than new expressions of old, unchanging reality.

00:10:46.660 | Fourth piece of advice I would give is that none of us be put off by old, tried and true

00:10:57.180 | expressions of reality.

00:10:59.860 | That is, we shouldn't feel the need to always be saying things in new ways as if old ways

00:11:08.520 | are inevitably inadequate.

00:11:11.940 | Some of the language describing a wonderful reality is so rooted in Scripture and so well

00:11:20.300 | suited to the reality and so compelling in its application that it shouldn't be left

00:11:28.180 | behind just because it's been around for a long time.

00:11:31.940 | "Delight yourself in the Lord" has been around for 3,000 years, Psalm 37, 4.

00:11:39.460 | "Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love" has been around for 3,000 years, Psalm

00:11:45.260 | 90, 14.

00:11:47.100 | We have this treasure, treasure in earthen vessels has been around for 2,000 years, 2

00:11:53.500 | Corinthians 4, 7.

00:11:54.900 | "Rejoice in the Lord" and again I say rejoice has been around 2,000 years.

00:11:59.300 | "In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore"

00:12:06.260 | that's been around for 3,000 years.

00:12:08.420 | These aren't John Piper's words.

00:12:11.340 | God gave us the language of Christian hedonism and we don't need to be ashamed of repeating

00:12:18.660 | his old happy language.

00:12:22.220 | The last thing I would say is that you read widely concerning the things you care about.

00:12:30.500 | It is good to find a teacher who shows you things you've never seen.

00:12:35.820 | It is also good to listen to a half a dozen other teachers who can help you see the same

00:12:42.820 | thing from different angles or other things that put the thing you love in an even brighter

00:12:50.900 | perspective.

00:12:51.900 | And I'll just end by saying that in the mid to late 70s, 1970s, anybody who listened to

00:13:04.140 | or looked at the 20-something John Piper and also knew his teacher Dan Fuller, they laughed.

00:13:19.020 | They laughed because my mannerisms, my tones of voice, my peculiar expressions, they all

00:13:26.340 | echoed my most influential teacher.

00:13:31.380 | I didn't begrudge that, frankly, I considered it a badge.

00:13:34.740 | I liked it.

00:13:37.220 | I was very happy to be the inadvertent imitator of the man who showed me so much glory, but

00:13:48.180 | I grew out of that and there came a day when nobody saw me as an imitator anymore.

00:13:55.340 | That's really helpful.

00:13:57.340 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:13:59.640 | This episode reminds me of John Piper's newest trilogy of books, too.

00:14:02.780 | I should mention those here as we close this episode.

00:14:06.740 | Those three books include A Peculiar Glory, Reading the Bible Supernaturally, and Expository

00:14:12.180 | Exaltation.

00:14:13.180 | We did an overview of those three books in APJ 1047 if you want more information, but

00:14:18.580 | those three books are critical if you want to develop as a Bible student and as an effective

00:14:23.220 | communicator on your own.

00:14:25.420 | Check those out.

00:14:26.420 | Thank you for joining us today.

00:14:27.780 | You can ask a question of your own, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast

00:14:31.140 | all at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:14:36.560 | We are going to look at God's abounding love to his children, to us, when we gather next

00:14:41.020 | time on Wednesday.

00:14:42.020 | Paul calls it God's great love.

00:14:44.940 | That's so good.

00:14:46.300 | I'm your host Tony Renke, and we're going to look at that great love more closely on

00:14:50.420 | Wednesday when we return.

00:14:51.660 | Thanks for listening.

00:14:52.660 | We'll see you then.

00:14:53.020 | [Music]

00:14:55.020 | [End]

00:14:58.020 | [Music]

00:15:00.020 | www.circlelineartschool.com

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How Do I Make Christian Hedonism My Own?

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