(upbeat music) - We love books at Desiring God, obviously. We love to read them and write them and publish them and promote them. And Pastor John, you've authored over 60 titles by yourself. In light of all those books, though, Steve writes in to ask this, Pastor John, as I view the wonderful books at DesiringGod.org, which books would you recommend reading first as a new believer?

- Well, when I read that question, I went to the website just to see, 'cause I haven't done this for a long time, just to click on the Books tab. And I thought, oh my goodness, I counted almost 80 titles. And I thought, oh, that is overwhelming. What would you do if somebody said, yeah, go check out Desiring God and read one of those books?

You'd stare at those 80 titles and say, what in the world? How am I supposed to make any headway in this at all? So that's a good question. And I hadn't been thinking about it at all. What an overwhelming thing that would be to look at all those. So let me give two answers.

One for the ordinary person, and I mean a really good, happy, normal, ordinary person who wants to grow in his faith, new faith, not knowing much about the Bible. And the other answer I'm gonna give, just real briefly, is for a non-ordinary person, like a really deep, critical, thinker type who asks a lot of questions and likes a lot of systematization and all that stuff.

So the first answer, which I think is probably the more important one, is what about the ordinary, new believer? Doesn't have a lot of Bible knowledge, has recently been converted and brought to trust Jesus as his Savior and Lord, wants to start reading and going deeper in relation to Christ and through the Scriptures.

What is my recommendation with regard to these books? And it would be really wrong and a dishonor to the Lord and to the Bible not to say, "Look, we don't sell Bibles, but that's the most important book. So read it every day. Read the Bible every day. Don't ever let any pipe book replace the Bible.

My books are only valuable if they reflect the Bible. Therefore, why not go to the source and get it straight from the horse's mouth, as it were?" So yes, Bible every day. And all we're trying to do at Desiring God is explain parts of the Bible and apply parts of the Bible to our real life.

So here's my answer. I'm gonna give you a package of six in the order that I would take them, okay? Number one, seeing and savoring Jesus Christ. This is the one book I aimed intentionally to write for unbelievers to introduce them to who Jesus is and how faith happens.

And even though we're talking right now about a new believer, I think it would be a great starting place for a new believer because everything hangs on Jesus. Who is He? What did He do? What's He like? Who have I hooked my life up to? And of all of my own books, that's the one I would go back to most often just to get a fresh glimpse of who I love.

Number two, 50 reasons why Jesus came to die. Short, two-page chapters on what Christ accomplished for us when He died. The new believer has seen maybe one or two or three things about the death of Christ that has persuaded them they need Him and they're gonna trust Him as their Savior to forgive their sins and to get them to heaven and to get them out of hell and to change their lives.

And there are at least 50 things Jesus accomplished for the new believer and oh, how they need to know these things. So just read two pages a day like we did as a family one time with that book and you'll know the glories of what Christ accomplished for you.

Better. Number three, Finally Alive. This is a book about what it means to be born again. In other words, 50 reasons why Jesus came to die describes the objective historical accomplishment that Christ performed for you as a new believer outside of you. Finally Alive focuses on what He did in you.

And new believers need to know both these things. They need to know what God did in history to save them and they need to know what God did in their souls to save them. There's a lot of misunderstanding about how God saves people both externally, what happened in the cross and internally what happens in regeneration.

So that's the reason those two books come after seeing and savoring. One, we need to know the cross and what He did there and we need to know by the Spirit, what did He do inside of me? Why did I come to believe? Why do I love Him now when I didn't used to love Him?

Number four, Battling Unbelief. This is a very practical set of chapters that were pulled out of another book, A Future Grace, and it's intended really practically from the get-go to teach you how to fight sin. Every new believer has remaining sin and you will until the day you die and the Christian life is a fight.

Paul said, "I've fought the good fight. I've been faithful to the end of my life." And this book is intended to help you know how to do that so that you don't become a legalist in the fight or lackadaisical in the fight. Everybody needs to know how to do Romans 8:13, "Put to death the deeds of the body," and that's what this book is intended to do.

Number five, The Dangerous Duty of Delight. Now, this takes the turn and gets at the heart of what makes Desiring God, Desiring God. What is this website about? Well, we are about helping brand new believers simply be Christian. And we're also about pushing on a few special Bible truths that help them be happy in God because God gets so much glory when His people are happy in Him.

And The Dangerous Duty of Delight is the lightweight version of the main book, Desiring God. So I'm putting it here instead of Desiring God because we're talking about people who are normal. Because a lot of people tell me even Desiring God, which I thought was pretty easy to read, is heavy sledding for some.

And one more, number six, When I Don't Desire God. The reason I add When I Don't Desire God to the package of six is because every believer struggles with discouragement of having read Desiring God or The Dangerous Duty of Delight and knowing that being happy in God gives him glory and then not being happy in God.

What do I do if I'm not happy in God? I get up in the morning, every morning I'm not happy in God. I have to work so hard to be happy in God. And this book, When I Don't Desire God, is all about that battle. So that's my answer to the normal person.

Just a brief answer to the non-normal person, and a lot of people probably like to put themselves in a non-normal category of, no, I am a questioning person. I am a systematic lover. I like to go a little deeper, and here's my answer for them. I'm still assuming very little Bible knowledge in the Christian faith at this point, and I would make just a few changes in that list.

I would keep seeing and savoring, number one, and I would keep 50 reasons, number two, and I would keep finally alive, number three, and then I would make shifts. There's a quadrivium, a four-package book that in my mind all are one big package for the reader ready to take a challenge.

Desiring God, pleasures of God, future grace, and When I Don't Desire God. And Desiring God replaces dangerous duty in the simple list. Future grace replaces battling unbelief because that book is in that book, and then I keep When I Don't Desire God. So really, the change I'm making is desiring God for dangerous duty and pleasures of God.

Oh, I left that out, pleasures of God as the foundation, deeper foundation for desiring God, and then future grace replaces battling unbelief. So both lists end with When I Don't Desire God because we all struggle and we need help, but everyone is different, Tony, and I would say read what works for you.

Excellent starter list, Pastor John, thank you. Did I hear you right that Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ is the book of yours that you most often return to? I did. When I'm looking for a fresh sight of the glory of Christ, I just need to see him. Sometimes I just read the chapter titles to remind me what I saw and what I wrote because I just think the way Christian life works is that we're changed from one degree of glory to the next, beholding the glory of the Lord, and where do you turn if you're just feeling like my vision is dim?

And so that helps me. Wonderful, yes and amen. It's a gem, maybe a great book to launch your new year of reading. Download Seeing and Savoring at desiringgod.org free of charge and begin reading it immediately for that title and for all the other books we have. Go to desiringgod.org and click on the Books tab.

You'll see this book and every other title we have too, a lot of niche books for all sorts of needs. And some people ask, how can you make all these books available online for free? You can't do that, nobody does that. Well, we do and we can because we work with some great publishers and because we're supported by generous financial donors behind the scenes like you, so thank you.

You make it possible for us to put all those books out there, so feel free to take some time and to go and sift through all the books we have and maybe, just maybe begin your 2015 reading with Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Speaking of Jesus, tomorrow we will talk about his compassionate, aggressive, surgical, and relentless love.

I'm your host Tony Rehnke, we'll see you tomorrow. (silence) (silence) (silence) (Session concluded at 4pm)