Everything is loss without Christ, as John Piper made clear in his 2014 sermon titled "Preparing to Know Christ Deeply Through Suffering." There he addressed Philippians 3.8, where Paul says that we should count all things loss. So how do we do this? How do we count all things loss? Here's what Pastor John had to say.

Jesus said, Luke 14.33, "No one of you can be my disciple who does not renounce all that he has." Period. No one, I'll say it again, this is Luke 14.33, "No one can be my disciple who does not renounce all his possessions." Now you've got clothes on, probably got a car out in the snowy parking lot, might have an apartment or a house, and other possessions.

You probably have an iPhone or pewter. So you own things. And this text says you can't be a follower of Jesus if you don't renounce those. So you can check out different translations on that word. Wouldn't that be the same as Paul saying, "Count them as loss." So this is mine, right?

I think my wife bought it for me. This is mine. This coat isn't mine. This is my preaching coat. And I should count this as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus. What would that mean? What would that mean practically, to regard everything in your life as loss compared to Jesus?

For the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. I'll give you four things that I think it means. Because that's what you should be asking right now. You say, "Okay, I hear the words. I hear the words. I'm supposed to renounce everything I have, and I'm supposed to regard everything as loss.

I'm supposed to have this reversal of values. Practically, I'm going to get in my car. I'm going to eat the food in my fridge. I'm going to put on my shoes and slippers. Practically, what--these are just bullet points that you can think about. They're worth a chapter in a book.

It means that whatever I'm called upon to choose, whenever I'm called to choose, between anything and Christ, I choose Christ. If--it doesn't happen for everything in your life. You don't have to choose between Christ and everything. But if you do, you have in your mind, "If I must choose between car and Christ, computer and Christ, wife and Christ, life and Christ, the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life, I choose Christ." That's the first thing it means.

That's a resolution in your mind. You have put in loss over everything in the sense that if you must choose, you choose Christ. Number two, it means I will deal with all the things in the world. I will deal with all the things in the world in a way that draws me nearer to Christ through them, or I won't deal.

How you doing with videos? Spending. I regard everything as loss in comparison with Christ. Number two, in the sense that as I wear my coat, drive my car, watch a video, I will deal with this in a way that draws me more to Christ, not less to Christ. If the video undermines the pure, sweet fellowship with Jesus, rather than enhancing it, stop watching them.

I'm appalled at what Christians do for entertainment by taking it for granted that if it's in the theater, it should be watched. I'm appalled, not because I'm a prude, that I have my favorite movies, but because I am ruined by certain scenes. I won't watch certain good movies because of that scene.

I will not, because Christ is dishonored in my soul, and my mind is contaminated for months, and He's more precious than the pleasure of the other 120 for minutes. Come on, let's be Christian through and through. Let's get ready to suffer. We can't deny ourselves a little bit of entertainment that the world assumes we must have in order for us to know and admire and sweetly and more deeply enjoy constant fellowship with our Jesus.

How are we going to face the stampede of horses when they come? That's number two. Use everything to enhance your enjoyment of Jesus, and if it doesn't enhance it, don't do it. Number three, it means that I always deal with things in the world in a way that shows the world they're not my treasure.

How do you do that? Well, figure that out. The world is watching you at work as to what is His treasure. There are ways. Read 1 Corinthians 7 on this, where Paul talks about doing business in the world and being married and other ways as though we were not.

That's pretty provocative. Be married as though you were not. Do business as though you were not doing it. Buy things as though you had no possessions. This is crazy, wonderful Christianity. Using a car, using a coat, using a computer in such a way that people around you assume that's not His treasure.

He uses it, and He has treasures, but that's not His treasure. Number four, it means that I will lose any or all things that the world can offer without losing my joy. If by force or by circumstance or by choice any precious thing is ripped out of my hand, person or product, anything ripped out of my hand, it will not destroy my joy because Christ is my all.

Those are the four things I think it means to renounce all that you have, to count everything as loss, to experience this reversal that prepares you to suffer well. Verse 8, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Beautiful.

That was a clip from John Piper's 2014 sermon, "Preparing to Know Christ Deeply Through Suffering," sent in to us by Rebecca Payne in Chicago, which is where the sermon was originally delivered. Thank you, Rebecca, for this clip. The full sermon, of course, is at DesiringGod.org. And please stop hoarding your favorite Piper clips.

Send them in. Share them with us all. And you can email me the name of the sermon and the clip of when and where in the audio the clip occurs, and we'll set it up here and give you credit for it. Tomorrow, Piper returns to tackle a perennially hard question.

If God is sovereign over all sin, how can he still be good? It's a biggie. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John Podcast.