(upbeat music) - What can I do to ensure that my life counts? To ensure that the life that God has given to me matters? That is a significant question, it's a universal question, and one asked of John Piper on June 3rd of this year in Monticevano, Italy. It came in the context of a television interview, and what follows is a field recording of what John Piper said, and answering the question, what is the true significance of life, and how is this related to risk-taking?

Here's what he said. - The true significance of life is that God made human beings in his own image with precious value, and that value, that significance, consists in knowing God, loving God, showing God. In other words, life is about God. Man is not central, God is central. He created the universe and humanity in order to magnify the greatness of God, and our joy in this world, which God made essential, is in Jesus Christ, in God the Father, in the Holy Spirit, so there's no tension between finding our significance in making much of God and being as happy as we can be.

This is one of the greatest discoveries of my life, that God's purpose to be glorified and my passion to be satisfied are not at odds. They come together in finding my satisfaction in God, so I use the little phrase, God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him, so he gets the glory, I get the joy.

Now, the second part of your question about risk and taking chances is that people who find their fullest joy and satisfaction in God that can never be taken away, not even death can take it away, in God's presence, his fullness of joy, at his right hand are pleasures forever, forever, so death cannot stop my joy.

Those kind of people are the most risky, dangerous, in the good sense, they love others at any cost, so if I see that you are in trouble, that you are dying, which I think everybody is dying and perishing without Christ, I'm willing to lay down my life for you because death doesn't take away my joy and if you would believe in Christ, then my joy is doubled because I find my joy in your joy in God, so I think it's the best of all worlds.

God gets the glory, I get joy, and you get loved. - The follow-up question came next, so what then is the wasted life? Here's what Piper said. - We waste our lives if we seek our happiness and our significance without reference to Jesus Christ. If God is left out of the picture, if Christ is taken out of the picture and we become a millionaire, have all the sexual pleasures we can imagine, become very famous, we've wasted our lives because in the end, God is the one who created the world and God is bringing the world and everything in it to an end for his purposes and if we haven't joined him in those purposes, we're wasting our lives.

You waste your life if you don't do what you were designed to do and every human being created in the image of God was designed to reflect the glory of God, the worth of God, the beauty of God. So if we don't find our joy in Christ, if we don't find our satisfaction in Christ, but instead find it in other things that may in the short run look very satisfying, we have wasted our lives, which means most of the world is wasting its life because they don't know God, they don't love God.

God is a very small, marginal consideration out on the edge of life, maybe every now and then he's brought into life in a crisis, well, that's a great blasphemy, that's a great dishonor to God and we will find at the end of our lives, we've wasted it if we've treated God as marginal instead of central.

- That's so good. This was a field recording captured during John Piper's television interview in Monticevano, Italy, recorded on June 3rd of this year during his recent international trip. John Piper was there for the Italian Ministries Congresso Missione 2016 conference and he was interviewed by Alessandro Iovino. Little clips like this one remind us of the vast reach of the web and of Desiring God content around the world.

Our internet distribution strategy allows people from all the nations to access our content and mobile apps free of charge. Desiring God in this podcast is supported almost entirely by the generosity of our donors around the world who make this international work possible, so thank you. For your generosity. Well, suffering is never very far away from any of our lives and tomorrow a listener wants John Piper's thoughts on the recent story in the news of Jerica Bolin in Appleton, Wisconsin.

She is a 14-year-old girl with a terminal illness who has decided that her life should come to a swift end. That is tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and theologian and pastor, John Piper, we'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)