Today we again highlight an excerpt from a Q&A Pastor John recently led with the students at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. Here's a question asked by one of the students. Hey Dr. Piper, I have a two-part question. The first part is what are some of the most difficult challenges you've faced?

And I mean the whole gamut, life, ministry, everything. And then part two, what has sustained you through those? I think the biggest challenges you'll face in the ministry will very likely relate to your family, your marriage, and your children, maybe the wider family depending what culture you're from. That certainly has been true for me.

I've told my wife Noel that we've been married 45 years. I said, "Look, all I need in the ministry from you is for you to be happy." Because if mama ain't happy... And we've gone through really hard times. I mean we've spent one season 33 months in counseling together trying to figure out why do we hurt each other like this?

Why do our mouths do this to each other? Then you get along okay for ten years and you need to work on it again. We've had pretty battled relationship. I love her like crazy and she means she's safe. But why? I don't know. I'm baffled at age 68 as to why we have some of these issues.

But here's the point. When you walk through a church for 33 years and you have seasons where you get zero growth for four years and 230 people walk away and you're accused of everything under the sun, the way you did church discipline and whatnot. If the collapse at home or the stress at home happens at the same time as the stress at church, you're just about a goner.

But if home is making it, you can handle anything at church. And if church is making it, you might get through a tough time at home. When they come together, then it'll take a miracle. It'll take a miracle no matter what. So that's the main thing I'd say. In the ministry, you will have seasons of great difficulty in the church and you will have probably seasons of great difficulty at home.

And if you think all's well, you've been married for 20 years and you got a 15 year old, he just may not show up. He may be gone and you don't know where he is. You going to be able to preach next Sunday? I've been there. So there just aren't any things harder than to keep pressing on in the ministry when there are broken pieces in the family.

So work on that. I mean, prepare your soul to be a good husband, wife, so that you learn from Jesus how to do marriage. And it is the greatest anvil of sanctification in the world. And that is no accident. That is no accident. Nothing has shown me my sin like marriage and nothing has given opportunities for grace like marriage.

So while it's been for me one of the hardest things, it's been one of the most glorious things. So I wrote a book on marriage. I was thinking, I've got to write a book on marriage someday because I'm a Christian hedonist and I want to relate it to everything and marriage is a big deal.

And I kept saying, but I'm not ready. We got a phone call one time from Christianity Today. They had a book called Partnership. I don't think it exists anymore. I mean a magazine. And they always had a featured of a smiley pastoral couple on the front. And they called me and said, "We would like to put you and Noel on the front and do a special article on you." And I said, "You would.

Look, we're barely talking right now. So I think you better come back later." And they never called back. I had not heard that story before. That was Pastor John recently fielding questions from students at Westminster Theological Seminary. And related to this is the Ask Pastor John episode titled, "What Steals Your Joy?" which is episode number 256 in the archive.

It's worth checking out. So what would Pastor John say to sermon listeners who are overly critical of their pastors and who tend to dwell on the faults of a sermon? We will talk about that on Monday. Until then, I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great and worship-filled weekend.