(upbeat music) - And welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast, especially if this is your first time here, welcome. I'm Tony, the host, and I pitch questions to longtime pastor and author, John Piper, that's his name. And we talk about life's most challenging questions and what the Bible has to say about those challenging questions.

And maybe you just happened to see this episode online or maybe someone sent you this link, a friend or someone. Welcome. We do all this by taking questions from our audience. And today's question comes from a listener named Rebecca. Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast. It has blessed me, guided me, and strengthened my faith over the years.

My question for you is this, how would you explain your experience of joy in God to a curious, unchurched non-Christian? Where would you begin? And how would you do it with language a non-Christian could easily follow? - Okay, let's do it this way. I'll write a short letter to an imaginary unbeliever named Michael, who has almost no experience of church or religious language, and who has asked me this very question to tell him what it means when I say, I experience joy in God.

So here we go. Dear Michael, let's just call him Michael. You asked me what I mean when I say, I experience joy in God. Thanks for asking. There are not many things, Michael, that I enjoy talking about more than what I value, what I treasure most. You already know that my experience of God is based on the Bible.

I believe it is the word of God. I believe that if you read it, especially its portrayal of Jesus, you can hear the ring of truth, the self-authenticating reality of God breaking through. So the first thing to say is that when the Bible talks about our relationship with God, it rings with the language of pleasure.

In other words, I'm not just responding to the Bible with my own peculiar personality. No, I've been told by the Bible, by God himself through the Bible, that I should experience God as my pleasure. It's what God demands, not just what I desire. God's word is lavish with pleasure language.

So let me give you some examples so you can get the feel of what I mean. And you can ask me sometime later and I'll show you these places actually in the Bible itself so you can read them for yourself. I think that would be helpful. Psalm 16, 11, "In your presence, O God, is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 19, 14, "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." Psalm 37, 4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 32, 11, "Be glad in the Lord." Psalm 19, 10, "More to be desired are your words, O Lord, than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb." Isaiah 52, verse 7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news of happiness." Philippians 4, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4, just a little earlier in the chapter, "Rejoice in the Lord." And again, I say, rejoice.

Isaiah 26, "You keep him in perfect peace, O Lord, because he trusts in you." Psalm 4, "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound." Psalm 63, "My soul thirsts for you, O Lord. Your steadfast love is better than life." So that's for starters, Michael.

Scraping the surface of the Bible, peace, rejoicing, contentment, happiness, gladness, delight, satisfaction, pleasures, all of it sweeter than honey, all of it better than wine, all of it better than life itself, as full as it can be, as long as it can be. So now the question is, how do I experience God that way?

How does John Piper do that? And the first thing to say is that God himself has taken out of the way the greatest obstacle to my happiness, namely my ugly, God-belittling sin, and his just and holy wrath and fury against it. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die in my place.

The Bible says that he became a curse for me. He condemned my sin in the death of his own son. And he did this for absolutely everyone, indiscriminately, who would believe in him. So when I receive Jesus Christ, when I take him, welcome him, embrace him as my savior and my Lord and the treasure of my life, God sees me as united to Jesus so that his death counts as my punishment and his righteousness counts as my right standing before God so that now there's no condemnation for me.

I'm forgiven for everything, no guilt, no punishment, no hell, no fear, accepted, adopted, loved, befriended, embraced as a father running out to welcome a long lost son. That's the beginning. That's the foundation, Michael, of all my joy, everything great and beautiful and valuable and desirable and satisfying in God is no longer dangerous for me.

It's like a mountain range of endless discovery of more and more beauty where I will never fall off a ledge and die, but go further up and further in forever and ever because God is infinite and I'm not. Michael, every day I read my Bible and in the Bible, God himself, through the words that he inspired, speaks to me and I speak back to him.

This is a real conversation. I don't hear voices. I read his inspired word addressed to his people, to me. I hear the voice of God in his precious word and it is sweeter than honey. That's what the Bible calls fellowship with God. And every day as we enjoy this fellowship, he shows me glimpses of his greatness and his beauty and his worth.

The very things that I was made for, I was made to see and enjoy God in his greatness, his beauty, his worth. And you know this is true, Michael. You, Michael, know this. You were made to see and enjoy greatness in beauty and worth and love. Everybody was. God is the sum of all greatness and all beauty and all value and worth and all love.

And he lets us enjoy him through his word and through his world, which also reveals his beauty and greatness. And when I face the ugliness and the sin and the suffering and the disasters of the world, he reminds me of spectacular promises that I will one day be with him, free from all pain, all sin, all depression, all discouragement, all anxieties, in a brand new, magnificent body.

And with that hope that he renews every day in me through his word, he gives me strength to go out into the world and to try to be useful to people by doing good and pointing people to everlasting satisfaction in him, which is what I'm doing right now, I hope.

And even though I'm not perfect, Michael, you know that pretty well. Even though I'm not perfect, he helps me do that and he forgives me for my failures, my shortcomings. And at the end of the day, my conscience is clean and oh, the sweetness and joy of a clear conscience.

My conscience is clean because there has been some measure of obedience and because of his precious, precious forgiveness through Jesus that I can lay my head down at night on a pillow with peace and joy. You know that's what I want for you, Michael. That's why I'm writing this letter and I'm happy to talk anytime you want to to take it further, your friend, John.

- Thank you for this letter, Pastor John. Doubt is a common struggle. Even among believers, it can be a common struggle and that's been a theme on the podcast recently. We just looked at it. Can I doubt God and have joy in him at the same time? That was APJ 1963.

Just on July 31, we addressed that. And then the very next episode we looked at was fighting off the inner skeptic in our Bible reading. When we open the Bible, that inner skeptic speaks up and makes us doubt or question what we read. That was APJ 1964 on August 3rd.

So recent episodes in our feed. And if you're listening and you maybe even doubt the existence of God, that too is nothing out of the ordinary. We looked at that in a previous episode, way back in APJ 48, way back. An old episode titled, "Do you ever doubt God's existence?" That was a question directed to you, Pastor John.

Do you, Pastor John, ever doubt God's existence? You can find APJs 48, 1963, and 1964 at askpastorjohn.com. Important and valuable episodes to check out. Thanks for joining us today. If you want to ask Pastor John your own question, email us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. I'm your host Tony Rehnke, and we'll see you back here on Monday.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music)