Miracles Surround Your Life

00:00:00.000 | Miracles surround our lives, physical miracles that we can see and hear and touch and taste.

00:00:11.480 | But what is the point of those physical gifts and visual miracles that abundantly surround

00:00:16.580 | our lives?

00:00:17.580 | It's a theme Pastor John took up in a sermon earlier in the year titled, "God's Peculiar

00:00:22.560 | Glory, How We Know the Bible is True," a message delivered in Houston.

00:00:26.920 | Here's a clip of what Pastor John said in that message.

00:00:30.560 | Psalm 19.1, the analogy of nature.

00:00:35.600 | The heavens are telling the glory of God.

00:00:39.760 | Psalm 19.1, the heavens are telling the glory of God.

00:00:46.920 | That means God expects you to look at the stars, sun, moon, galaxies, cosmos, and by

00:01:00.320 | implication I think subatomic particles and the universe within as well as the universe

00:01:06.640 | about, all the majestic, incredible, amazing world that God made and he expects you to

00:01:17.640 | see the glory of God.

00:01:22.640 | But here's the catch.

00:01:24.400 | The glory of nature is not the glory of God.

00:01:29.320 | It points to the glory of God.

00:01:32.520 | It echoes the glory of God.

00:01:34.840 | It leads to the glory of God because Einstein looked at the glory of the heavens and went

00:01:43.200 | to church and said, "I have seen so much more glory than the preachers.

00:01:50.520 | I don't think they know what they're talking about."

00:01:53.440 | When I read that about 20 years ago, I thought, "God, I don't want ever anybody to say that

00:01:58.720 | about me.

00:01:59.720 | Please, God, don't let anybody say that when they hear me preach that I just look up in

00:02:06.120 | the night sky and I've seen a bigger God than Piper has."

00:02:11.680 | Any of you preachers here, make that a resolution.

00:02:15.680 | That'll never happen.

00:02:16.680 | God willing, that'll never happen.

00:02:19.320 | All that to say Einstein was not a believer and he saw glory and he didn't see the glory

00:02:24.840 | of God.

00:02:26.160 | So what does it mean?

00:02:27.200 | The heavens are telling the glory of God.

00:02:31.280 | I think it means there are eyes here and there are eyes here.

00:02:36.040 | And for those who have eyes to see, when these eyes see, these eyes see through.

00:02:43.960 | And you know beyond the shadow of a doubt, God made that.

00:02:48.840 | I mean, have you ever been like me?

00:02:50.240 | I mean, I'm walking to church.

00:02:51.760 | I've got a path I walk to church.

00:02:52.840 | I probably walked it 10,000 times over the last 35 years.

00:02:56.760 | I have a seven-minute walk from my church, 600 paces door to door.

00:03:00.120 | I know the trees, I know the apartments, I know this walk, do it blindfolded.

00:03:04.960 | And there are seasons of the year when the apple blossoms are coming.

00:03:08.680 | I know the weekend, I know the concert that always happens on that weekend.

00:03:12.680 | I mean, everything is beautiful.

00:03:16.160 | And I try sometimes not to believe that God made this tree.

00:03:23.000 | I look at this tree, 80 feet tall, branches that probably weigh as much as five cars,

00:03:29.760 | and it's March and 80 feet up there, little buds are coming out, and there's no heart

00:03:34.000 | pumping in this tree.

00:03:38.720 | Pushing the sap 80 feet into the air.

00:03:41.240 | I mean, I get blood.

00:03:45.120 | Feet to head, feet to head.

00:03:46.640 | Sap, I don't get that.

00:03:49.160 | You can call it capillarity or whatever.

00:03:51.800 | I say, "That's a miracle."

00:03:54.440 | Now, even if you explain it, like put a name on it, capillarity,

00:04:03.080 | I think, "That helps."

00:04:08.000 | I cannot not believe God made that tree.

00:04:11.520 | Now, you may think that's naive.

00:04:13.200 | I think when I stand at the Judgment Day and all the nations are gathered,

00:04:17.600 | and I'm standing there before the living God, and God looks out over all the atheists

00:04:23.320 | who didn't believe God made the trees, they're going to look ridiculous.

00:04:28.680 | Amen.

00:04:29.680 | God help us to see and see through.

00:04:33.600 | This short sermon clip was taken for John Piper's message on April 28th of this year.

00:04:37.520 | It's titled, "God's Peculiar Glory, How We Know the Bible is True."

00:04:42.080 | And it's named after Pastor John's new book, A Peculiar Glory, which you can find and download

00:04:46.800 | free of charge entirely from our site, DesiringGod.org.

00:04:50.280 | I hope you'll pick it up and read it.

00:04:52.560 | Well, we get a lot of emails from you listeners every month, and I doubt there's a more common

00:04:57.080 | question over the years than the question about blaspheming the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable

00:05:02.640 | sin.

00:05:04.000 | Can Christians be guilty of this unforgivable sin or not?

00:05:07.760 | This is huge, and it's tomorrow.

00:05:09.120 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:05:10.400 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast with John Piper.

00:05:14.040 | [END]

00:05:15.540 | John Piper's "God's Peculiar Glory, How We Know the Bible is True" is available as a podcast on iTunes.

Miracles Surround Your Life

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