Welcome back to the podcast, episode number 1700, as we approach the end of our ninth year. It's amazing. We talk a lot about joy in God on this podcast, and when John Piper says, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him," he put the motto in the plural, "us," "we." And this is intentional.

Christian hedonism is not a me-and-God spiritual nirvana. To be sure, we experience amazing things alone with God. But divine joy is always meant to expand, and to expand by being shared. Back in the fall of 2019, Pastor John traveled to Holland to share his life, his passions, and what drives him theologically.

And the result was a fascinating testimonial, part of which I want to share with you today. Here's Pastor John in Holland in 2019 explaining how we can increase our joy in God and why we need each other to do it. God is most glorified, most praised in you when you are most satisfied in him.

So praising is the consummation of joy. It's the completion of joy. But joy is the essence of praising. The way I like to say it in English because it sounds so good is, "Prizing, prizing is the essence of praising." You prize something, you value it, you are satisfied with it, and that is the heart and the essence of praising.

Otherwise, praising is hypocritical. Most people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They don't prize me, they're just singing songs on Sunday morning because that's what you're supposed to do. So that was another huge part, and Jonathan Edwards is the one who gave me the key to that, because he said, "God glorifies himself not only by communicating himself to our minds, but by communicating himself to our hearts and being glorified by our rejoicing in him." And I thought, "I've never heard anybody say that." So all this has happened.

In these three years, these thoughts, these discoveries were happening, and they've — I've just never been the same since those three years. So let me end, re-end with just one more illustration. So the, the last argument this morning was that God is most glorified in you when you're most satisfied in Him.

So the glory of God depends upon your pursuing pleasure in God. It's the essence of it. The argument just before that was love. You can't love people if you don't pursue your joy in God, because loving people is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.

So let me end like this. That, that was the last piece that I couldn't figure out. I saw that God is glorified when I'm satisfied in Him. Like my wife receiving "I want to be with you, Noelle," that honors her. "I want to be with you, God. You make me glad more than anybody." God is honored when I say that and feel that.

I could not for the life of me figure out how that vertical satisfaction made me a loving person horizontally. I knew that there were other religions that had pictures of people sitting with their arms folded and their legs crossed under a tree experiencing a kind of karma and just let the world go to hell.

Who cares? I'm happy. I'm happy in God. I don't care if people are dying or suffering. I knew that couldn't be. That's not the Bible. That cannot be. But what's, what's the link? And Paul was talking to the elders in Acts 20, to the elders of Ephesus. And at the end of his talk, he said, "Remember," this is Acts 20 verse 35, there it is, "Remember." He didn't say forget.

Some people say, "You shouldn't have this motive to be blessed." And I'll say, "If that were true, he'd say forget." "Remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive." More blessed? More happy? More satisfied? More content? More joyful? To give my life away? Die for others? Suffer for others?

Sacrifice for others? Yes. You want more joy? Die for others. Live for others. That's what it says. It is more blessed, more happy, more content if you will give yourself away. Don't just fold your arms and sit under a tree and say, "Me and you, God, we're happy. I don't care about other people." You won't be happy, not long.

That's not joy in God. So I discovered that joy in God is a peculiar kind of thing. It not only honors God, but it also is a kind of pressure inside of me. It wants to be out. It wants to draw you in because I — the way it works is that joy in God gets bigger if I can include you in it so that your joy in God becomes part of my joy in God.

So that's why I came to Hollywood. I wanted to be happier. And it would make me very happy. I mean it is making me happy. I'm very happy right now just to talk to you about these things. But if I, if I heard that God took these few words and drew you in to more joy in God that caused you to lay down your life for the people in your country who don't know Him.

If I heard that a half a dozen of you out of the 5,000 that have been here, my joy would be greater. That's what John said, right? My joy is complete when my children walk in the truth. And you're not my children, but kind of. I mean some of you are older than I am, but not many.

So I don't know if I'll ever see you again on earth, but if God, God preserves me, if He holds me fast and He works in you to bring you into a deeper, sweeter enjoyment of Himself for the sake of the world and His glory, I will not have come to Holland in vain.

That was John Piper sharing his testimony, the story of his theological awakening back on November 17th, 2019 at a conference in Holland. And this entire session is available at the site right now under its title, "How God Made Me Happy in Him, John Piper's Journey into Joy." Entire thing is worth a listen or a watch.

I'm pretty sure we have video of this one. Thanks for listening to today's clip. Most clips are crowdsourced except for the last three. I pulled those together myself, but when you find a clip, email it to me. Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio, and tell me how it impacted your life.

Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Well speaking of core questions of Christian hedonism, next up is a question from Brazil. Does God command our praise for His sake or for our own sake?

That is a great question. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We are joined in studio with Pastor John. We'll be with you on Friday for that. We'll see you then. 1. What is the Holy Spirit's plan for the world? 2. What is the Holy Spirit's plan for the world?