(upbeat music) What makes you the happiest? What are you after? What's the one main thing that if you got it, would make you the most joyful person for the longest amount of time? Every breathing human being on this planet is on a quest to find a fountain of joy.

The whole Bible assumes this quest and the Bible answers the quest too. And to see how Pastor John has historically turned to a handful of key Bible texts, particularly four of them, four go-to texts, he mentions a lot, about 50 times now on this podcast to date. And each is worth a close study.

It's worth writing out by hand into a journal, worth meditating on, even memorizing. And those texts include Psalm 40, verse 16, Psalm 70, verse four, Romans five, verse 11, and First Peter three, 18. Each of them in their own way says, God is the prize of the gospel. And it's two of these texts that came up in a very short video John Piper recorded in 2017.

I recently found it and pulled it to share it with you here. Here's Pastor John. - What's the deepest root of your joy? What God gives to you or what God is for you? One way to get at that question in your own soul is to ask, why did Jesus die and rise for me?

And of course, there are glorious answers like he died to forgive my sins and to take away the wrath of God and to give me deliverance from hell and to give me imputed righteousness and to give me entrance into heaven and to cause my body to be raised from the dead and to give me entrance into the new heavens and the new earth and take away all my tears.

And that would be right and gloriously true and we should rejoice in it. But none of them is the ultimate reason for why he died. First Peter three, 18 says, Christ suffered the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. He died to bring us into fellowship with God because in God's presence, his fullness of joy at his right hand are pleasures forevermore and all the other works of redemption are a means to that.

It says in Psalm 40 verse 16, let those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. It doesn't say let those who love your salvation say continually, great is your salvation, but great is the Lord. Of course, our salvation is great and we should love it as great.

But mainly our salvation is happening to us and all the gifts of God are coming to us in order that we might know God, love God, treasure God, be satisfied in God. So the biblical answer to the question, what is my ultimate deepest source of joy? It's not his gifts.

It's him known and enjoyed in and through his gifts. - Amen. I especially love that Psalm 40, 16 text. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. That's the point. To love salvation is to love and worship the saver, the one who is the deepest root of our eternal joy, the prize of the gospel.

Again, I would encourage you to study on your own those four texts I mentioned earlier, Psalm 40, 16. Again, I just mentioned it. And also Psalm 70 verse four, Romans five verse 11 and first Peter 3, 18. This was audio from a 2017 video titled, what is the deepest root of your joy?

Christian hedonism in two minutes. You just heard the entire thing, but you can find the video online at desiringgod.org. Thank you for joining us today. Ask a question of your own or search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at askpastorjohn.com. So God is the prize of the gospel.

Amen. But he also lavishes on us all sorts of other created gifts that are good and lawful and should be embraced with thanksgiving too. And handling such gifts is not without challenges. So when do our good gifts from God become vain? That's the question up next time. I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we'll see you back here on Friday.

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