(upbeat music) - And we are back, good Monday morning. We enter this new week with a great topic on the table. I mentioned it on Friday. I love episodes where we just walk through several texts that have proved most helpful to you over the decades, Pastor John. And we're doing that today, prompted by this question from a listener named Greg.

Pastor John, hello to you. I'm so thankful for Desiring God and for you and for this podcast. Here is my question. What are your favorite verses for when you fight the enemy the hardest? What are your go-to verses? I love it when the verses are just there for us, but we also have to go looking for them also at times.

So Pastor John, what text would you give Greg and to all of us? - Well, the first thing is thank you very much. There's nothing I'd rather do than go looking for my favorite verses because I need rehearsal just like everybody else does. And so just giving some thought to this was simply wonderful.

It's wonderful not only because I enjoy so much, but also because I think this is just big, good for our listeners. I hope they tune in now for the next 10 minutes or so and just soak in the glorious parts of scripture that are so wonderfully tailor-made for living the Christian life through all of its ups and downs.

I don't think God wants us to live our lives in a kind of vague sense of trust. Like God is good, vaguely. I have trust, vaguely. I enter my day, vaguely. I think he wants us to have specific promises. Now, since there are hundreds of them in the Bible, you have to make choices about which one you're gonna use like a lozenge in your mouth today.

Like I picture my heart as a mouth with a tongue and I put a lozenge in it of some juicy promise and I suck on it all day long. And that means I don't suck on 50 others 'cause my brain at least will not hold 50 things in consciousness at one time.

So here are some of my most common go-to lozenges or passages that I find help in through all kinds of situations. And I'm gonna just pose a question about a situation that I face and then give you the go-to promises. Number one, I think I might have 11 of these, so I'll try to go quick.

Number one, I'll start with lust, the sin of lust. So here I am searching Google or I'm on some news site and there's this sexually titillating link, not to pornography, that's really not a big temptation for me, I've never been to a pornographic site, but just this sexually titillating picture over here that you can go and see more of what that might be about.

Will you click through? And here are my three go-to passages that persuade me, don't do that. That's not going to be good for you. One is a warning, which is a negative promise, one is a positive promise and one is a provision. So first, the warning. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it's better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

I'll tell you, that's a very powerful disincentive from clicking through to sexually titillating stuff. And then there's this positive promise, and this is even more powerful. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I want to see God. And I know if I linger over some presumably innocent sexual stimulation, the defilement of my mind will obscure the sight of the living God.

I know it will. And then the third thing is the provision. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. And I say to myself, Christ suffered horribly on the cross so that I would not click on sexually stimulating material and I don't want to hammer another nail into his hand.

Number two, I am facing some affliction, say. It's sickness, maybe small, maybe big, or some loss. And oh, how precious has Psalm 34, 19 been to me. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Now, the reason that's especially encouraging is because it says that the righteous are in affliction.

In other words, it's not necessarily owing to my sin that I'm in this affliction. And it says I'm coming out in God's good time. Number three, revenge. Anger at the way I've been mistreated by somebody. Somebody said something false about me. How can I have peace while injustice against me has been done?

Answer, the promise that God will be the avenger. John Piper, love your enemies. You do not need to get the last word here. God will settle things in due time. So here's Romans 12, 19. Beloved, never avenge yourselves. Leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine.

I will repay." That's a promise. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, you feed him, John Piper. Leave the repayment to God. Oh, how many times I have been set free from bitterness that way. Number four, I feel weak. I feel inadequate.

I'm facing a situation and I'm just not up to it. Isaiah 64, four. From of old, no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you. Well, what's so unique about him? Here's what it says. Who works for those who wait for him.

That's absolutely amazing. Glorious, the glorious uniqueness of our God is that he works for us instead of recruiting slave labor to work for him. Amazing. And listen to how 2 Chronicles 16, nine says it. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong for those whose heart is whole toward him.

God is looking for people for whom with omnipotence he can work today. Can I work for you today? Like I'll sign up God to work for me today. So I wanna be strong for you today. Will you trust me? I'll tell you, that's amazing. Number five, what about when I don't have what I think I need?

Enough money, enough time, enough help. What if I lead a ministry and they look to me for hope? Now there are two go-to verses I've used hundreds of times. Philippians 4, 19, my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. That's mind blowing.

Both the promise and the resources are mind blowing. The riches of glory is how much he has with which to help me. Every need will be met. How many times did I say to our leaders at Bethlehem while I was a pastor coming to the end of a year with finances almost always falling short, and I say to them, guys, God will give us everything we need.

He will, it says so, period. Let's go home and sleep. And then there's Hebrews 13, five and six. Keep your life free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. He has said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.

I will not fear what can man do to me. I mean, that's as sweet as it gets. Number six, does he care? You come into moments where you say, yeah, I know all the big promises. He's powerful, he's wise, but does he care? Does he care about me personally?

I'm such a little teeny weeny weeny, little human being in the universe is big. How could God possibly care for me? First Peter, five, seven. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Yes, yes, of course, we know that. That's our theology. So that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

I've said that little phrase, walking into situations. So many times, he cares for you. He cares for you. He's God and he cares for you. So there is a mighty hand and there is a caring heart. So he says, don't shrink back from humility, thinking that you're gonna be too vulnerable if you're humble, but rather remind yourself, no, every single anxiety goes onto his broad shoulders because he cares, he cares for you.

Number seven, how much does he care? Like, is this a mild care? Is this kind of a begrudging care? Yeah, God's a God of love and therefore Jesus died, so he has to care for me. Oh my goodness, how horrible can our minds talk to us? How much does he care?

Luke 12, 32. Fear not, little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's his good pleasure. He loves to care for you. Or better than this is Jeremiah 32, 41. This is God talking. I will rejoice in doing good to them with all my heart and with all my soul.

I mean, what more can God say than that he loves, he rejoices to do good to us with all his heart and all his soul? I mean, there isn't anything conceivably bigger than all of God's heart and all of God's soul, and that's what he says is behind his doing good for us.

Number eight, will he help me in this crisis that I am feeling very afraid in right now? This is probably the verse that I have gone to, Tony, more than any other verse in all my 76 years of life. And I'll bet lots of people who've listened over the years would already know what verse it is.

It's Isaiah 41, 10. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. The reason that is number one for the struggle with fear, which is almost every day, something fearful happens every day, little fears, big fears, is because it's not general.

It's the voice of God himself speaking with a direct, I will, I will, I will. Spurgeon said, "I love the I wills and I shalls of God." Me too, me too. I mean, they are, I mean, the he wills, the he wills, he will help you, those are good.

But I will, I mean, when I step into the pulpit anxious that God act in spite of my inadequacies, and I hear him say, because I'm preaching it to myself, by his authority from his word, I will help you. I mean, that's just glorious, because you actually hear God by his word say it to you.

Number nine, what about depression? What about melancholy? Times of deep, deep discouragement, countless times. We used to have a sign on the side of the building because I quoted this so often back in the days when people thought, "That's the Hope in God church because of the sign, there it is on the side of the wall." Why'd they put that up there?

They put it up there because they have a depressed pastor who needs encouragement as he walks to church. Here's what I go to, "Why are you downcast, O my soul?" You're preaching to yourself, right? John Piper's preaching to himself. "Why are you downcast, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me, hoping God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God." Oh my goodness, I have preached that to myself in low times, hundreds and hundreds of times.

Number 10, we're almost done, just two more quick ones. Death, okay, I'm old, right? 76 is old, I think I just read, somebody died yesterday at 76. Every time I read that or 74 or 63 or 42, I say, "Wow, I'm living on borrowed time." Could be any night, right?

So what do you say to yourself when that fact overwhelms you? And here is, I mean, for months, I have recited this to myself before I go to sleep every night. Maybe one or two exceptions. First Thessalonians 5, 9, "God has not destined you, John Piper, for wrath, but to obtain salvation through your Lord, Jesus Christ, who died for you, so that whether you wake or sleep, you will live with him." Tony, that's going on to my gravestone, unless I change my mind.

Number 11, the last one. And this, I've saved for last because it's the all-encompassing, in other words, it provides both foundation for all the promises, and it is the Vesuvius of all the promises, explosion, and you probably know what it is. Romans 8, 32, "He who did not spare his own son," think of it, "but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" In other words, because Christ died for us, God will give his children everything, absolutely everything we need to be supremely holy and happy forever.

So thank you, Greg, for the question. May the Lord grant to all of us the faith to live joyfully, boldly, lovingly by these amazing treasures. - Yeah, Greg, that was a great lead-in to this wonderful episode. Thank you for instigating it, and thank you for joining us today. You can ask a question of your own like Greg did, search our growing archive, or subscribe to the podcast, all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Well, next time we look at God's love to us, and we are gonna look at his love to us even when life hurts. This is one of those areas that proves especially challenging for us to grasp because it's relatively easy to see and feel God's love to us when things are going well in life.

But what about when sickness hits? What about when we come to the end of our resources? Even as we approach the end of life, how do we feel God's love and his purposes in our pain? I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Wednesday for that answer from John chapter 11.

We'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)