Is God an Egomaniac?
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00:00:05.000 | Pastor John, what is this ministry we call Desiring God all about? What drives us?
00:00:11.000 | What's at the center of what you and us as a ministry at large are seeking to tell the world?
00:00:16.000 | One of the things Desiring God was started to spread and to communicate, to build into people's lives, was the truth, God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in Him.
00:00:35.000 | That's probably as close to the center of what we're about as anything, but it didn't come out of nowhere.
00:00:43.000 | Here's where it comes from. This is so crucial for people to see.
00:00:48.000 | God is radically God-centered in the Bible. God is radically God-exalting.
00:00:57.000 | And that's all over the Bible. He created us in His image. He put seven billion images of Himself in the world.
00:01:06.000 | Why would a person put seven billion images of himself in a city? Well, he wants to get attention for himself.
00:01:12.000 | So God is radically self-exalting in creating us in His image.
00:01:17.000 | And He says in Isaiah 43, "I created you for my glory, to display my character, my power, my wisdom, my justice, my truthfulness."
00:01:29.000 | And so the question then always is, if God is that radically God-exalting, how is He not an egomaniac?
00:01:37.000 | Or how is He not a megalomaniac? How is He not using us instead of loving us?
00:01:42.000 | That's the key question. And that's where this slogan comes from.
00:01:46.000 | Namely, God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in Him.
00:01:49.000 | Because the answer to the question of whether God is an egomaniac or not is whether His self-exaltation is at the same time a satisfaction of our souls.
00:02:02.000 | And that's in fact what the Bible says.
00:02:05.000 | The reason God in exalting Himself is not an egomaniac is because He's exalting the very thing that satisfies my soul.
00:02:19.000 | Namely, His beauty, His glory, His character.
00:02:22.000 | And this is the most amazing part, and where I'm going with a text in just a minute.
00:02:28.000 | He is exalted in my enjoying Him. In my being satisfied in Him.
00:02:38.000 | And I always tell the rose story about bringing the roses to Noelle, and she says, "Oh, why did you?"
00:02:43.000 | And I say, "It's my duty." And people laugh and say, "That's not the right answer for why you bring your wife roses on your anniversary."
00:02:49.000 | The right answer is, "I couldn't help myself, Noelle. I love doing things for you. Nothing makes me happier than for me to spend the evening with you."
00:02:59.000 | And she doesn't respond by saying, "You're so selfish. All you ever think about is yourself.
00:03:04.000 | Because you said nothing ever makes you happier than to spend the evening with me."
00:03:09.000 | She doesn't respond like that because she knows when I enjoy her, she is honored.
00:03:15.000 | And that's exactly the way it is with God.
00:03:18.000 | So God is most glorified. I could say at that moment, "Noelle is most honored by me when I'm most satisfied in her this evening."
00:03:26.000 | And I say on Sunday morning, "God is most glorified in me when I'm most satisfied in Him."
00:03:31.000 | Now, what I'm always on the lookout for, Tony, is texts that more or less make that explicit.
00:03:39.000 | And here's one I haven't used before.
00:03:42.000 | I was reading this recently in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul has this thorn in the flesh and he pleads three times for God to take it away.
00:03:53.000 | And God says, Jesus says to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, "My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness."
00:04:05.000 | So my power is glorified and magnified and beautified and made perfect in weakness.
00:04:11.000 | And then Paul says, "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
00:04:22.000 | Now, doesn't that say, if I can be glad in the midst of my thorn, in the midst of my weakness or my hardship, then Christ will be magnified in me.
00:04:36.000 | And that's exactly what I'm trying to say in Christian hedonism and desiring God.
00:04:41.000 | We exist to proclaim that Christ is most magnified in me when I'm most satisfied in Him.
00:04:47.000 | And then he says it, I think, almost explicit.
00:04:49.000 | He says in verse 10, "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses."
00:04:59.000 | So, content means satisfied and peaceful.
00:05:05.000 | So, I am so content and so satisfied in the grace that he says is sufficient for me, that I am now, for his sake, displaying his glory.
00:05:18.000 | So, I think the structure of Paul's thought in verses 9 and 10 of 2 Corinthians is exactly what we're trying to say at Desiring God.
00:05:28.000 | God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
00:05:33.000 | This is the key for how God can be so God-exalting and yet a God of love, because he is as committed to my being satisfied in Him as he is to his being glorified in me, which is simply amazing.
00:05:51.000 | Yes, that is simply amazing.
00:05:53.000 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:05:56.000 | Email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:06:00.000 | You can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources free of charge from John Piper to help explain why God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
00:06:13.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.
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