As you can imagine, Pastor John, emails flooded our inbox over the recent public words of Victoria Osteen, wife of Joel Osteen. Victoria attempted to explain how personal happiness and God's glory interact. She said this. When we obey God, we're not doing it for God. I mean, that's one way to look at it.

We're doing it for ourselves. Because God takes pleasure when we're happy. That's the thing that gives Him the greatest joy this morning. So I want you to know this morning, just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you're not doing it for God, really.

You're doing it for yourself. Because that's what makes God happy. Amen. Let's open our hearts in Him today. Father... Now, the Osteens are pretty easy targets. I mean, you could pull a clip from just about anything that they say and critique it. But this quote, when I first heard it, it really hit home, because it seems to touch on so many things that we're about here at DG.

And I think this explains all the emails, too. So, Pastor John, when you hear this clip, what comes to your mind? Well, I would love to believe that Victoria and Joel, who is standing right there beside her, mean by those words that she said what I would mean by them if I provocatively used them in a context.

And I could use them. That may surprise some people. I could use those very words without changing a single word and mean, I think, biblical truth. But I don't know her. I haven't watched sermons. I haven't read books. I don't know all that she or he would mean by them.

And I doubt that they mean what I mean, given what I have heard and have seen. I would ask kind of a litmus test question that might go something like this. Is she willing to say to that church, "Yes, and if you don't obey God for joy, you'll go to hell"?

1 Corinthians 16, 22, "If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed." That is, if anyone does not delight in God above all things, they will perish. They'll go to hell. Or if anyone does not find supreme pleasure in giving God pleasure in their obedience, they'll be destroyed.

Will she quote Deuteronomy 28, 47, "Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart," which is what she says we should do, "if you don't do that, you will serve your enemies." In other words, is she blood earnest and God-centered about what she's saying?

Or is it this just kind of emotional mush that's hyping the congregation? I don't want to pass judgment on her heart because I don't have the information I need in order to be sure what she really means. So maybe the most helpful thing I could do, since I've already said I could use these, is to take maybe a couple of her statements and say what I would mean by them.

And then people can judge, "Okay, is that biblical, and is that something she might say?" So if I use the words, "When we obey God, we're not doing it for God. We're doing it for ourselves." If I wanted to go to the Bible and find that, I'd go to Acts 17, 25.

"God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything." In other words, when you obey God, you're not serving God as though he needed anything. That's the point of Acts 17, 25. He's the benefactor. You're the beneficiary when you come to God.

That's basically what she said. That's basically what Acts 17, 25 says. And Mark 10, 45, Jesus said, "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." So he's saying, "Don't come to me to serve me. I didn't come to be served.

Your obedience is not meeting any of my needs. You're not keeping my business afloat by your employment. I came to serve you. I'm going to die for you. I'm going to save you. I'm going to give you everlasting joy. Don't turn that around and make me the beneficiary of your measly obedience.

Your obedience is getting in sync with a life that will bring you everlasting pleasure at my right hand." That's the way I would say it. So yes, we obey God not for God in the Acts 17, 25 sense. That is, not as though he needed anything. In all our obeying—this is another way I'd say it—in all our obeying, we are the receivers of help.

1 Peter 4, 11, "Whoever serves, let him serve by the strength that God supplies." So every step I take in obedience, that step is a gift to me from God's grace. 1 Corinthians 15, 10, "I worked harder than any of them." So here's my obedience. "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that was with me." So God is giving John Piper grace, grace, grace, grace, grace with every act of obedience I'm performing so that I'm the recipient of grace at every moment.

He's not the recipient of anything that meets his needs. So yes, we do our obedience for ourselves. The gospel is a "no help wanted" sign, but a "help available" sign. When Jesus calls sinners, he calls them to a banquet of forgiveness and hope and help. "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, you who have no money.

Come buy and eat, come buy wine without money and without price. Why do you spend your labor on what is not bread?" That's the kind of invitation the gospel gives. It is more blessed to give than to receive. So Paul says that to the elders in Acts 20, 35.

So remember, when you're about to do the obedience of giving, this is a great blessing to you. Remember that you are being generous for your blessedness. And I would say the same thing about worship that she did. She said, "When you worship him, you're not doing it for God, really.

You're doing it for yourself." Well, what else does "delight yourself in the Lord" mean? "Rejoice in the Lord." These are calls to worship. That is the heart of worship, the very meaning of worship, is find your supreme pleasure in God. Be satisfied in God above all things. And if that's what she meant, then I would agree that this is indeed what makes God happy.

Our delighting in God. Here's the essence of Christian hedonism. Our delighting in God above all things. Coming to him as our supreme satisfaction. Turning away. Here's a hooker for the Ostines. I'm not sure they'd say this. Turning away from money and sex and food and family and power and career and approval of man and successes and ministry and business prosperity.

Turning away from all that to the living God as our only and supreme treasure. That's what makes God happy because that shows how valuable God is and God loves to see God shown to be valuable. What pleases God is the glory of God reflected in our enjoying God. And the glory of God shines most brightly when we turn from all these other treasures to embrace him as our satisfying treasure.

Is that what she meant? If so, amen, I'm on board. Does she mean that when she says do it for yourself? Does she mean do it so that yourself is satisfied in God, not money? God, not prestige? God, not power? God, not health? God, not success? That makes God look great.

And when God is made to look glorious, he's glad indeed. In fact, here's a key verse for me. Psalm 147 10. "His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love." In other words, God delights in people who reverence him and delight in him, not in their legs.

They're not delighting in, "I've got strong legs, I've got beautiful legs," or anything about my strength or my beauty. That is why a healthy doctrine—I don't know what she thinks about this either—that's why a healthy doctrine of self-denial has to be stirred in. God is glorified and happy when we deny ourselves the superior satisfaction of money over God, or sex over God, or health over God, or family over God.

God is not happy when we are happiest in food, or family, or health, or wealth over him. He's angry, really angry. That's called idolatry, and God is angry at people who are happy when they are happy in their sin. Here's a text that might be another litmus test to see whether the Osteans would be willing to quote this text.

Ezekiel 36 22. "I am about to act, says the Lord, for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, and I will deliver you from all your uncleanness, and then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.

It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel." So the point of that text is that as long as we remember the mercies of God bought for us at the cost of Christ's life, as long as we remember what it cost to save us, there's going to be a place for brokenheartedness, for our sin.

And we will forever make the grace of God in the sacrifice of Jesus, the supreme treasure of our lives. We will no longer say merely that our happiness makes God happy, which is what she said. We won't say that merely, "Our happiness makes God happy." We will remember that years and years of our sinful happiness in the things of this world belittled God and cost him the life of his son to overcome.

So we will rather say, "Our happiness in God, in God's grace, God's undeserved grace, is what makes God happy." For our happiness in God over all things, over above all things, shows the supreme value of God in the world, and that's what makes God glad. Yeah, this is absolutely key, Pastor John.

To enjoy the gifts of the world, things like health and money and sex, to enjoy these things more than God is sinful. And as you explained, we are very concerned with this when it's disguised as gospel truth, or what is sometimes called the prosperity gospel. And we've talked a lot about this on the podcast.

See episode number 231, where Pastor John explains why I abominate the prosperity gospel. That's episode number 231. And not long ago, we welcomed guest Russell Moore, and in episode number 371, he explained what he called the dime store prosperity gospel. That's in episode number 371. Check those episodes out in the free Ask Pastor John app for the Apple and Android phones and devices.

And if you want to understand more about why our joy and God's glory are not at odds, that's exactly what we're all about at Desiring God. We believe God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And if this is a new concept for you, we filmed a short four-minute video to explain this.

Go to our website, DesiringGod.org, and click on the About tab at the top of the page, and you'll find it. We return tomorrow to talk about one major strategy to winning the war against lust. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you tomorrow. Desiring God.org Desiring God.org