Well, we all want to be loved by God. But why? Why do you want to be loved by God? Is it to escape eternal judgment? Is it to be freed from the guilt of sin? Is it to have a clean conscience? Or is it because the consequences of sin have made a mess of your life?

Why do you want to be loved by God? This was the topic taken up by John Piper in a sermon nearly 20 years ago. A clip sent in to us from a listener out there. Here's Pastor John preaching in 2001. Now a certain man was sick, John 11, 1.

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair. So this is clearly a picture of sweetness and love. Mary loved Jesus and Jesus loved Mary.

Mark that word "love." It will show up several more times. It was this woman whose brother Lazarus was sick. Verse 3, "So the sisters sent word to him, saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.' But when Jesus heard this, He said, 'This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified in it.'" So now you have two profound realities on the table.

Love and glory. The love of Christ and the glory of Christ. And my question is, how do they relate to each other? Verse 5, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So," verse 6, "so when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two days longer in the place where he was and let him die." Notice three things.

One, Jesus chose to let Lazarus die. Two, He was motivated in this by His zeal for the glory of God to be manifest. Verse 4, "Third, this motivation is love." Do you see the word "so" or "therefore" at the beginning of verse 6? Do you see what it's preceded by and followed by?

It's preceded by, Jesus loved Martha. Jesus loved Mary. Jesus loved the dying man, Lazarus. Therefore He did not go heal him, but stayed two days longer where he was and saw to it that he died. Now what on earth could possibly turn that into love? Verse 4, "This is not going to end in death.

This is all about the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified in Him." So here's my definition of the love of God based on this text. God's love is His doing whatever needs to be done at whatever cost so that we will see and be satisfied with the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

Let me say it again. The love of God is His doing whatever needs to be done at whatever cost to Himself or to us so that we will see and be satisfied by the love of God in Christ forever and ever. Let me confirm this with John 17:24. Here's Jesus praying for us and He loves us in this prayer.

Oh how He loves us in this prayer. John 17, 24, "Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am so that they may see My glory." If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what? He finally asks for you that you may see Him.

The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them My glory, Father. Show them My glory." And they will have arrived at ultimate satisfaction. So what does love do when we cry out, "Help Me! Love Me! Forgive Me!" God says, "I will engage all My might and the life of My Son to give you what you need most.

Me! A fellowship with Me! A sight of Me! An enjoyment of Me!" I said this in Orlando Friday night to a group called the Ivy Jungle. And a man came up to me afterwards and he said, "Now wait a minute." He opened his Bible to John 3, 16. He said, "This is the verse I know.

This is the verse I love. How does what you just said fit into this verse? For God so loved, loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life." And I said, "It fits like this. John 17, 3.

This is eternal life that they know You, Father, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Why do you want to be loved by God? Yes, not to perish. Yes, not to go to hell. Yes, not to have a guilty conscience anymore. Yes, to have the marriage put back together.

But if that's all you want, you don't know Him. You don't know Him. It's for life. And what is life? It is to know Him and His Son. It's to fellowship with Him. It's to behold Him. It's to be satisfied with Him. It's to enjoy Him until Christ becomes our treasure.

We don't know what it is to be loved by God. Powerful. Yeah, that is why we want to be loved by God, to get Him, to enjoy Him, to be satisfied in Him. It reminds me of Pastor John's excellent book, God is the Gospel. If you have not checked out that book, God is the Gospel, do so.

It's great. It's available right now. The free PDF is at DesiringGod.org/books. You can get it right now. This sermon clip today was sent from John Piper's sermon on 2 Corinthians 12 titled Thankful for the Love of God. Preached on November 18th, 2001. Stacy, a man in Charleston, North Carolina, sent it to us with this testimony.

"I was a homesick freshman in college when I first heard this," he said. "It impacted me because it was the first time that I understood that the love of God for us is not primarily meant to save me from hell, but to bring me home to God. This was revolutionary for me, and now I see this more and more as I grow closer with God, and still in the midst of some homesickness six years later.

But His keeping me from my earthly home has allowed me to know His love like I never even knew it before." That's so good. Thank you for listening to today's sermon clip. All of our clips are now crowdsourced. You tell us what bits of Piper's sermons have comforted you, and we share that clip with the APJ audience.

If you have one, email me. Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of when the clip happens in the audio, and tell me how it impacted you. Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Well should a Christian juror be quick to acquit in the courtroom? We're of course going to talk about pacifism, particularly of a Christian's responsibility on juror duty. I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We will be rejoined in studio with Pastor John on Friday for that. We'll see you then. Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9 Page 2 of 9