I have two related questions for you today, Pastor John, joining us over the phone today. Back in 1981, in a sermon on wisdom, you said this, and it's a rather curious thing, so I want your thoughts on it. "God has created this world and its moral laws in such a way that the more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be." That sounds different to my ear.

My question is, would you say that same thing today, looking back? Is this how Christian hedonism should be expressed, that God created this world and its moral laws in such a way that the more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be? And while we're at it, what did you think of Kevin Young's recent tweet where he wrote, "We will only be most satisfied when we delight in God being most glorified." He seems to want to adjust your favorite sentence.

Yes, yes, he does seem to want to tweak my sentence. I love Kevin Young. I'll get to Kevin in a minute, but let's take these questions one at a time. First, that sentence from 1981, "The more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be." That sentence is almost the flip-flopping of my usual sentence.

I like to say, and I think it's the heart of Christian hedonism, indeed the heart of the Christian life, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And that 1981 sentence could be paraphrased, "We are most satisfied in God when God is most glorified in us." And would I say that today?

And here's my answer. As long as we make clear that the "we" that we're talking about is the body of Christ, those who are born again, the answer is yes, I could say that we are most satisfied in God when God is most glorified in us. I could say that.

The mark of being born again is to be sure that we fall out of love with self-promotion and self-exaltation, and we fall into love with God-promotion and God-exaltation and God-glorification. We are glad, we are satisfied when this happens, God being glorified. In Romans 1:23, Paul shows that the natural man—that is, those who are not born again by the Spirit through faith in Jesus—the natural man exchanges the glory of the immortal God for images.

In other words, they don't find their highest treasure and their greatest pleasure in the glory of God. And so verse 21 says, "Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him." They did not glorify Him as God or give thanks to Him. So one of the fundamental distinctives of the person who is no longer a natural person but a born-again new creation is that we stop exchanging the glory of God for images like ourselves, the one we see in the mirror, and we delight in God being glorified.

We love it if our going low can make God go high. So it's true, it's true that we are most satisfied in God when God is most glorified in us. It makes a Christian glad to see God magnified. And the more we see God and His Son magnified and glorified, the more satisfied we feel.

Now, having said, "Yes," having said that I still believe that and can say that's true, I add this, no, I don't emphasize that when I am describing Christian hedonism. And here's the reason. To the average person listening to that sentence that we are more satisfied when God is more glorified, it communicates that our glorifying God is one thing, and our being satisfied in God or enjoying God is a separate thing from glorifying God.

It's a response, it's a response to glorifying God. And as long as people are thinking only in those categories, they'll never understand Christian hedonism. They won't understand what it is, and they won't get to the heart of what it means for them to glorify God. The primary burden of Christian hedonism is to push and push and push on the truth that most people don't think about, namely, that their very enjoyment of God as God, the beauty of God, the loveliness of God, the perfections of God, that their very enjoyment of God is not only their response to God's being glorified, it is the way they glorify Him.

There it is. It's the way they glorify Him. And oh, how I wish I could make this clear and compelling and help people feel the wonder and the force and the vast implications of this. So let me say it again. The primary burden of Christian hedonism, the biblical truth that is so often neglected that I'm trying to lift and wave like a banner from the housetops is that our joy is not only—I'm admitting the truth now—is not only a response to seeing God glorified, but our joy in God is an essential part of the way we glorify God.

Christian hedonism says that by means of enjoying God as God, we make God look valuable. And if we only say that the exaltation of God as valuable makes us happy, instead of also saying that our happiness in God is what exalts Him, we haven't yet grasped what is at the heart of Christian worship and Christian living.

So let me say again that my 1981 sentence is technically true. Here's what I said, "The more we choose to glorify God, the happier we will be." Technically, yes, true. But I think it is also misleading because it gives the impression that the only connection between happiness, my happiness, and glorifying God is that happiness is a response to God being glorified, when in fact my happiness in God is a means of God's being glorified.

That is the essence of Christian hedonism, that my happiness in God is a means of God being glorified. And that is what I hope to clarify and commend with every breath I have for the rest of my life. Now, what about my good friend whom I love so much and trust dearly, deeply, Kevin DeYoung's tinkering with my favorite sentence, "God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in Him," by saying—here's what he tweeted—"We will only be most satisfied when we delight in God being most glorified." That's tricky in my answer.

I think Kevin's sentence is a version of my 1981 sentence. It is true. If we don't delight in God being glorified, we are definitely not going to be most satisfied. So he's right. So his sentence is absolutely true, but it does not clarify what I have given my life to trying to clarify.

So I'll say one last time what the difference is. It is right and good always to be glad when God's glory is exalted, however it happens. Yes, and amen. But the heart of Christian hedonism is more radical and pervasive in its effect on all we do. It says that we ourselves will never glorify God as we ought to unless we are satisfied in Him as we ought to be.

Being satisfied in God as our supreme treasure is not only a response to seeing Him glorified, but the way He is glorified in us, and that changes everything. Amen. This changes everything, and it is the message driving everything that we say and do at DesiringGod.org. Pastor John, thank you.

And listeners, thank you for supporting our labors. It is not without tension. It is not without pushback. It is not without resistance, and that's okay. The work goes on, and we appeal to people all across the globe to glorify God by treasuring God above all else in this world.

Thank you for listening and for partnering with us in the work, and thank you for making the Ask Pastor John podcast a part of your day. You can stay current with our new episodes on your phone by subscribing through your preferred podcast app or even now through the DG YouTube channel.

To search our past episodes or browse our most popular episodes or to send us a question, do those things at our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Friday. See you then.