Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / How Can I Explain Christian Joy to Unbelievers?

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How Can I Explain Christian Joy to Unbelievers? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  And welcome back to the Asked Pastor John podcast, especially if this is your
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  first time here. Welcome. I'm Tony the host, and I pitched questions
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  to a long time pastor and author, John Piper, that's his name,
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  and we talk about life's most challenging questions and what the Bible has to say
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  about those challenging questions. And maybe you just happen to see this episode online
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  or maybe someone sent you this link a friend or someone. Welcome. We
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  do all this by taking questions from our audience, and today's question comes from
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  a listener named Rebecca. Hello Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast.
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  It has blessed me, guided me, and strengthened my faith over the
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  years. My question for you is this, how would you explain your experience
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  of joy in God to a curious, unchurched non Christian. Where would you
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  begin and how would you do it with language a non Christian could easily follow?
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  Okay, let's do it this way, all right. Sort letter to
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  an imaginary unbeliever named Michael, who has almost no experience of church or religious
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  language, and who has asked me this very question to tell him what it
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  means when I say I experienced joy in God. So here we go.
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  Dear Michael, let's just call him Michael. You asked me what I mean
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  when I say I experienced joy in God. Thanks for asking. There are
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  not many things, Michael, that I enjoy talking about more than what I
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  value, what a treasure. Most you already know that my experience of God
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  is based on the Bible. I believe it is the word of God.
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  I believe that if you read it, especially it's portrayal of Jesus, you
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  can hear the ring of truth, the self authenticating reality of God breaking through.
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  So the first thing to say is that when the Bible talks about our
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  relationship with God, it rings with the language of pleasure. In other words,
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  I'm not just responding to the Bible with my own peculiar personality. No,
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  I've been told by the Bible, by God himself through the Bible,
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  that I should experience God as my pleasure. It's what God demands, not
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  just what I desire. God's word is lavish with pleasure language. So let
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  me give you some examples so you can get the feel of what I mean,
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  and you can ask me sometime later and I'll show you these places actually
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  in the Bible itself, so you can read them for yourself. I think
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  that would be helpful Psalm sixteen eleven. In your presence, oh God,
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  is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures for evermore Psalm nineteen
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  fourteen. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may
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  rejoice and be glad all our days Psalm thirty seven. Four. Delight yourself
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  in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
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  Psalm thirty two eleven. Be glad in the Lord, Psalm nineteen ten.
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  More to be desired are your words, o Lord, than gold, even
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  much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb Isaiah fifty
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  two, verse seven. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
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  who brings good news of happiness Philippians four. I have learned, in whatever
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  situation, I am to be content through Christ, who strengthens me. Philippians
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  four. Just a little earlier in the chapter, rejoice in the Lord.
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  And again I say rejoice Isaiah twenty six. You keep him in perfect peace,
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  oh Lord, because he trusts in you. Some four You have put
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  more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound Psalm
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  sixty three. My soul thirst for you, oh Lord, Your steadfast love
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  is better than life. So that's for starters, Michael scraping the surface of
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  the Bible. Peace, rejoicing, contentment, happiness, gladness, delight,
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  satisfaction, pleasures, all of it sweeter than honey, all of it better
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  than wine, all of it better than life, life itself, as full
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  as it can be, as long as it can be. So now the
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  question is how do I experience God that way? How does John Piper do
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  that? And the first thing to say is that God himself has taken out
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  of the way the greatest obstacle to my happiness, namely my ugly God,
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  belittling sin and his just and holy wrath and fury against it. He sent
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  his son, Jesus Christ into the world to die in my place. The
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  Bible says that he became a curse for me. He condemned my sin in
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  the death of his own son. And he did this for absolutely everyone,
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  indiscriminately who would believe in him. So when I receive Jesus Christ, when
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  I take him, welcome him, embrace him as my savior, and my
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  Lord and the treasure of my life. God sees me as united to Jesus,
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  so that his death counts as my punishment, and his righteousness counts as
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  my right standing before God, so that now there's no condemnation for me.
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  I'm forgiven for everything, no guilt, no punishment, no hell, no
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  fear, accepted, adopted, loved, befriended, embraced as a father running
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  out to welcome a long lost son. That's the beginning. That's the foundation
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  of all my joy. Everything great and beautiful and valuable and desirable and satisfying
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  in God is no longer dangerous for me. It's like a mountain range of
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  endless discovery of more and more beauty, where I will never fall off a
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  ledge and die, but go further up and further in forever and ever,
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  because God is infinite and I'm not Michael. Every day I read my Bible,
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  and in the Bible, God himself, through the words that he inspired,
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  speaks to me, and I speak back to him. This is a
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  real conversation. I don't hear voices. I read his inspired word addressed to
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  his people to me. I hear the voice of God in his precious word,
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  and it is sweeter than honey. That's what the Bible calls fellowship with
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  God. And every day as we enjoy this fellowship, he shows me glimpses
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  of His greatness and his beauty and his worth, the very things that I
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  was made for. I was made to see and enjoy God in his greatness,
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  his beauty, his worth. And you know this is true, Michael,
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  You, Michael, know this. You were made to see and enjoy
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  greatness, in beauty and worth and love everybody was. God is the sum
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  of all greatness and all beauty, and all value and worth and all love.
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  And he lets us enjoy him through his word and through his world,
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  which also reveals his beauty and greatness. And when I face the ugliness and
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  the sin and the suffering and the disasters of the world, he reminds me
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  of spectacular promises that I will one day be with him, free from all
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  pain, all sin, all depression, all discouragement, all anxieties, in
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  a brand new, magnificent body. And with that hope that He renews every
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  day in me through his word. He gives me strength to go out into
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  the world and to try to be useful to people by doing good and pointing
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  people to everlasting satisfaction in Him, which is what I'm doing right now.
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  I hope. And even though I'm not perfect, Michael, you know that
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  pretty well. Even though I'm not perfect, he helps me do that,
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  and he forgives me for my failures, my shortcomings. And at the end
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  of the day, my conscience is clean. And oh the sweetness and joy
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  of a clear conscience. My conscience is clean because there has been some measure
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  of obedience and because of His precious, precious forgiveness through Jesus, that I
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  can lay my head down at night on a pillow with peace and joy.
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  You know That's what I want for you, Michael. That's why I'm writing
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  this letter, and I'm happy to talk anytime you want to take it further.
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  Your friend, John m thank you for this letter, Pastor John.
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  Doubt is a common struggle, even among believers. That can be a common
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  struggle, and that's been a theme on the podcast recently. We just looked
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  at it, Can I doubt God and have joined Him at the same time.
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  That was apj nineteen sixty three, Just on July thirty one, we
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  address that, and then the very next episode we looked at was fighting off
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  the inter skeptic in our Bible reading. When we open the Bible, that
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  inter skeptic speaks up and makes us doubt or question what we read. That
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  was ABJA nineteen sixty four on August third, So recent episodes in our feed
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  And if you're listening and you maybe even doubt the existence of God, that
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  too is nothing out of the ordinary. We looked at that in a previous
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  episode way back in APG forty eight, way back, an old episode title,
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  do you ever doubt God's existence? That was the question directed to you,
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  Pastor John. Do you, Pastor John, ever out God's existence?
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  You can find APGS forty eight, nineteen sixty three in nineteen sixty four and
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  asked Pastor John dot com important and valuable episodes check out Thanks for joining us
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  today. If you want to ask Pastor John your own question, email us
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  at ask Pastor John at Desiring God at dot org. I'm you here,
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  Sonny Rinkie. We'll see you back here on Monday.