2020, the year of the Great Lockdown, leading to what some are now calling the Great Coronavirus Recession. It was triggered by a strategic wager, sacrificed economic momentum in order to physically distance people, all with the goal of starving and killing off a spreading virus. It was a huge gamble, and it hurt.

Our Great Coronavirus Recession has been compared to the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, even to the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933. Looking forward, some think the economy will bounce back to normal as soon as the virus is under control. Others are less optimistic and see a long road ahead.

But the recession is here, and it will remain until God is done with it. We talked about this a couple of weeks back when I mentioned John Piper preached a sermon titled "What is the Recession for?" He preached it in the previous recession, back in February 1st, 2009. The Dow had been dropping but had not yet bottomed out by the time he preached the sermon.

The entire sermon is worth listening to, but I especially want to go back to the beginning of that sermon. Here's how Pastor John began it. Father, our heart's desire now is that we not waste this recession. Forbid that we would let it go by with a preoccupation of anxiety or grumbling or clever financial maneuvering.

Oh God, grant, I pray, that our ears would be open to what you are saying to the world. In France, in Tokyo, in New York, in Brasilia, may our eyes be open to what you are saying and doing. Don't let us sleep through the recession. May we learn, may we grow, may we hear, may we know your plan.

Come, be our teacher in these days. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So this is a message about the recession and God's purposes in it. And when I use the term "recession," I don't have any careful, sophisticated definition in mind. I don't even know what the definition of a recession is.

You hear it on the radio, so I think I know what they're talking about. I mean the financial setbacks like business slowdown, decreasing profits, massive layoffs, joblessness, thousands of foreclosures, personal and business bankruptcies, loss of retirement funds. I got a letter from the BGC today, my little white sheet, 29.97% lower than the last little white sheet I got from the retirement people down at the BGC.

That's the sort of thing I mean by recession. And now more and more, all of the social and political upheavals that will accompany it. Witness France, for example, and probably more on the way. So God is sovereign, which is why you can speak in terms of purposes. God is sovereign over these things.

He foresees them all. He causes or permits them all. And when he foresees and he causes or permits, it is always by design. So whatever comes to pass, comes to pass by God's design. However it comes to pass. The lot is cast in the lap. Every decision is from the Lord in Las Vegas.

Many are the plans of the mind of a man, but the purpose of the Lord will stand on Wall Street. The Lord brings the council of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples in Switzerland. The Lord declares the end from the beginning saying, "My council shall stand.

I will accomplish all my purpose everywhere." So this is the foundation of understanding that we have when we ask, "So what are you up to today? What are the purposes of God in the recession?" And we're not left without an answer. There are many answers, but not all of them.

God is up to billions and billions of things that you don't know about, I don't know about, we won't know about until we get to heaven. We trust Him for those, but He's up to five or six or a hundred things that we do know about because they're in the Bible.

So those are the ones I want to talk about because those are the ones we have some authority to talk about and they're not unclear. I have time perhaps to do five. Here they are. I'll state them and then we'll unpack them. Number one, He intends in this recession to expose hidden sin and to bring us to repentance and cleansing.

Number two, He intends to wake us up, I'm thinking us in the West in particularly, to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where they always have mega recession and nothing else. Number three, He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in His grace and not in our goods, in His mercy and not in our money, in His worth and not in our wealth.

Number four, He intends to advance His saving mission in the world and spread the gospel like wildfire and grow His church precisely at a time when they have least resources to do it. And number five, He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love so that no one is in need in the church of Jesus Christ, period.

Amen. I would encourage you to listen to the entire message from February 1st, 2009 titled, What is the recession for? Some of God's purposes. You can find it online at DesiringGod.org. Thanks for listening. If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app in Spotify or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel as well.

To find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us of your own, do that online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. While does John Piper deny personal assurance, does he deny that Christians can enjoy assurance? Next time we'll need to address a quote that's found its way all over the internet attributed to him.

That's next time on Friday. I'm Tony Reinke and we will see you then. 1 DesiringGod.org Page 1 of 2 Page 2 of 3 Page 3 of 4 Page 5 of 6 you