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Happiness Myths to Avoid · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Everyone on the planet wants to be satisfied. That's one
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  Speaker 1: of the baseline truths that we make as Christian hedonists.
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  Speaker 1: All of us are needy and hungry and will consume
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  Speaker 1: anything we can find to find that satisfaction. And in
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  Speaker 1: seeking this happiness, we can turn to evil things, of course.
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  Speaker 1: And we can turn a lot of good gifts into
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  Speaker 1: idols of self-fulfillment like career, money, food, relationships, friend groups.
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  Speaker 1: Self-fulfillment is a motto of our age, but a false
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  Speaker 1: motto that ignores something much better. Today on Ask Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: happiness myths to avoid. We get there from this anonymous question.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, hello and thank you for this podcast. Our
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  Speaker 1: modern therapeutic culture consistently frames the ultimate goal of life
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  Speaker 1: as fulfillment. The quest is to find personal satisfaction in
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  Speaker 1: our careers, our relationships, and in our own identities. But
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  Speaker 1: is fulfillment and even self-fulfillment a biblical category? How does
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  Speaker 1: the Bible's use of fulfillment language differ from this modern
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  Speaker 1: psychological concept? And how does Scripture redirect our focus away
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  Speaker 1: from asking, how can I be fulfilled?
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  Speaker 2: The word fulfillment, the English word fulfillment, occurs in the
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  Speaker 2: English Bible, in the ESV at least, four times. That's all.
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  Speaker 2: Each of them refers to the fulfillment of God's word.
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  Speaker 2: The Word has been fulfilled. If we expand our search
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  Speaker 2: to all the forms of fulfill, fulfills, fulfills, fulfilling, fulfillment,
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  Speaker 2: the Word occurs 107 times, and not one of those,
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  Speaker 2: not one, refers to self-fulfillment. And we might respond by saying, well,
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  Speaker 2: just because the Bible doesn't use a term doesn't mean
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  Speaker 2: it's wrong or unhelpful. That's true. There are a lot
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  Speaker 2: of words that we use that aren't in the Bible,
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  Speaker 2: like counseling, discipling, parenting, wholesome, Trinity. I mean, you can
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  Speaker 2: just do random searches. Lots of English words aren't in
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  Speaker 2: the Bible that are fine, good to use. That's true.
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  Speaker 2: And it is possible to use the term self-fulfillment and
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  Speaker 2: mean something good and true and biblical by it.
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  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 2: But It's always wise to ponder why a concept might
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  Speaker 2: be so pervasive in our culture and so absent from
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  Speaker 2: the Bible. There might be something to learn here. There
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  Speaker 2: might be some danger lurking here in that common usage
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  Speaker 2: which is so absent from Scripture. And the danger, the defect,
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  Speaker 2: is not hard to find. If you ask ChatGPT, which
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  Speaker 2: I did, how does contemporary psychology conceive of human fulfillment?
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  Speaker 2: That was the question I asked. It gives you about
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  Speaker 2: seven popular frameworks, psychological frameworks used in teaching and motivational
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  Speaker 2: literature and therapeutic settings. And if you walk through these
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  Speaker 2: seven frameworks, you find many concepts which in and of
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  Speaker 2: themselves seem harmless enough. What does human fulfillment involve? It
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  Speaker 2: involves engagement, relationships, agency, the power to choose, accomplishment, competence,
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  Speaker 2: positive self-regard or self-esteem, purposefulness, significance, meaning, being liked or appreciated, integrity,
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  Speaker 2: consistency with one's values, clear conscience, etc. You could get
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  Speaker 2: into a pretty animated conversation about which of those is
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  Speaker 2: primary and how they relate to each other and how
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  Speaker 2: important they are. But what emerges, if you look carefully,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm afraid it emerges all too slowly because of
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  Speaker 2: how blind we so are to the obvious at times,
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  Speaker 2: what emerges is that The entire description of contemporary conceptions
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  Speaker 2: of fulfillment is absent of God. He is totally missing.
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  Speaker 2: He is never mentioned in the answer of Chet GPT
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  Speaker 2: for how contemporary psychology thinks about human fulfillment. He's not
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  Speaker 2: a factor. He's a non-entity, a non-issue. So what's the
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  Speaker 2: problem with fulfillment language? The main problem seems to be
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  Speaker 2: that it is so closely and naturally and immediately connected
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  Speaker 2: in our day with self-fulfillment. Connect the word self with
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  Speaker 2: the word self-fulfillment, which implies for most people that our
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  Speaker 2: fulfillment derives from some enhancement of the self. You can
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  Speaker 2: hear it in those descriptions of contemporary psychology, self-agency, self-determination. self-accomplishment, self-competence, self-regard, self-esteem, self-consistency,
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  Speaker 2: oneself's own values, and so on. Fulfillment is understood in
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  Speaker 2: terms of self-fulfillment, and self-fulfillment is understood in terms of
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  Speaker 2: finding satisfaction, or whatever term you choose to use for
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  Speaker 2: human flourishing. Finding flourishing, finding satisfaction, through the enhancement of
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  Speaker 2: the self, as if the self is not just the
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  Speaker 2: one that experiences fulfillment, but the one whose condition creates
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  Speaker 2: the fulfillment. That's the problem. In the contemporary secular God-omitting mindset,
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  Speaker 2: fulfillment doesn't just come to the self, it comes from
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  Speaker 2: the self. Amazingly, the Bible says, really does have a
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  Speaker 2: description of this kind of thinking and feeling. 2 Timothy 3.2,
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  Speaker 2: Paul says that in the last days, people will be
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  Speaker 2: lovers of self. The Greek word is philautos. And you
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  Speaker 2: can hear the word autos, like autopilot, like a self-driving car.
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  Speaker 2: And philos means love. So philautos is lovers In other words,
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  Speaker 2: as sin increases in the last days, people will find
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  Speaker 2: satisfaction by focusing on the enhancement of their self and
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  Speaker 2: loving the self and what it can become. Loving in
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  Speaker 2: the sense of being satisfied by. That's what the text means.
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  Speaker 2: Loving the self in the sense of being satisfied by
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  Speaker 2: the self. Delighting in the self. Being content in the self. Well,
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  Speaker 2: who's doing the loving? Well, the self is doing the
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  Speaker 2: loving of the self. The self is finding its satisfaction
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  Speaker 2: in the enhancement of the self. There's nothing new about this.
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  Speaker 2: It's in the Bible. It's a fundamental human flaw since
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  Speaker 2: Adam and Eve, and we don't want to play into it.
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  Speaker 2: And what's interesting and really significant, really helpful, is to
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  Speaker 2: pose this question. How does the Bible use fullness language
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  Speaker 2: or filling language in regard to the human soul or
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  Speaker 2: the human heart or the human person? Those are biblical
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  Speaker 2: categories for what could be called the self, the soul,
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  Speaker 2: the heart, the person, soul, heart, person. How does the
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  Speaker 2: Bible speak of the soul's fullness or the heart's fullness.
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  Speaker 2: Or another way to ask the question would be, well,
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  Speaker 2: if the self is not supposed to direct itself in
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  Speaker 2: love to the self, what should it direct itself in
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  Speaker 2: love toward? And from cover to cover, the biblical answer
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  Speaker 2: is God. In Ephesians 3.19, Paul prays for us that
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  Speaker 2: we might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
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  Speaker 2: and be filled with all the fullness of God. Or
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  Speaker 2: the most common way the New Testament talks about the
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  Speaker 2: fullness of God is that we should be filled with
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  Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit, filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 2: is the presence of God in the human soul or self. So,
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  Speaker 2: The biblical alternative to self-focus is God-focus. The presence of
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  Speaker 2: the living God in the self, for the self, transforming
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  Speaker 2: the self into greater and greater likeness to Christ. When
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  Speaker 2: Paul says, put on the new self, the word for
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  Speaker 2: self is anthropos, person, man. And that new person is
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  Speaker 2: being renewed in the Spirit of God, by the knowledge
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  Speaker 2: of God, into the image of God. But here's the
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  Speaker 2: really practical question that connects the Bible's fullness language with
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  Speaker 2: what we love to call Christian hedonism. What would it
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  Speaker 2: actually mean in felt experience, real experience, to seek the
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  Speaker 2: fullness of God? What will that feel like? And the
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  Speaker 2: answer of the Bible is that it will feel like
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  Speaker 2: joy in God, satisfaction in God, delight in God, pleasure
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  Speaker 2: in God, contentment in God. For example, Psalm 1611, in
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  Speaker 2: your presence, O God, is fullness of joy, full fullness
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  Speaker 2: of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. John 15, 11, Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: who is God, says, these things I have spoken to you,
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  Speaker 2: that my joy may be in you, and your joy
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  Speaker 2: may be full. John 17, 13, these things I speak
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  Speaker 2: in the world, that you may have my joy fulfilled.
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  Speaker 2: in you, or they might have them fulfilled in themselves.
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  Speaker 2: To be filled with God or with the Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 2: is to be filled with joy in God. This is
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  Speaker 2: the point of Acts 13.52, which puts the two together
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  Speaker 2: like this. The disciples were filled with joy and with
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  Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit. This is a thousand times better than
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  Speaker 2: the contemporary quest for self-fulfillment. That quest is conceived entirely
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  Speaker 2: without God as the source of fullness. And in his absence,
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  Speaker 2: the self curves in on itself so that the self
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  Speaker 2: itself becomes the source of the fullness, which is totally futile, hopeless.
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  Speaker 2: Human beings, the human soul, was meant for God. Meaning,
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  Speaker 2: we were made to be completely and eternally happy in God,
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  Speaker 2: with God. Not the self as the essence of our joy.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, it is futile and hopeless and deadly to make
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  Speaker 1: the self the source of satisfaction, all while ignoring the
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  Speaker 1: one who satisfies. That is the greatest tragedy in the universe.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible pushes us away from self-fulfillment to counter-culturally finding
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  Speaker 1: satisfaction in God himself. We get the joy that we
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  Speaker 1: are seeking all along and we find it in him.
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  Speaker 1: In him we find it. So yes, this is a huge,
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  Speaker 1: huge tragedy that in contemporary psychology that God is not
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  Speaker 1: a factor. He's a non-entity, a non-issue. Be careful. So careful.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John. And so much of this self-fulfillment
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  Speaker 1: emerges in our entertainment culture too because it has the
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  Speaker 1: same core problem presenting on-screen lives, happy lives that are
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  Speaker 1: happy despite being devoid of God himself. God is nowhere
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  Speaker 1: to be found in modern entertainment. It's the spiritual cancer
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  Speaker 1: where scene after scene after scene portrays a God-ignoring, man-exalting, sin-condoning, sex-distorting, marriage-weakening, maleness-mocking, femaleness-trivializing, righteousness-ridiculing, Arrogance,
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  Speaker 1: admiring worldview. That's Pastor John's words for it. All because
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  Speaker 1: God is absent. Same problem in entertainment. For more on that,
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  Speaker 1: see the Asbestos Gen book on pages 291 and following
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  Speaker 1: in that chapter on television, movies, and fun to see
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  Speaker 1: this connection for yourself. Powerful. Well, Dr. John Piper became
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John. In 1980, at the age of 34, he
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  Speaker 1: became a pastor. He had zero elder experience. He had
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  Speaker 1: zero experience hiring and firing people, zero experience making a
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  Speaker 1: church budget. He had done exactly zero baby dedications. He
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  Speaker 1: had made zero hospital visitations, conducted zero funerals. He had
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  Speaker 1: just two weddings and had preached only 15 sermons. Was
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  Speaker 1: John Piper unprepared for ministry? That's the question. It's up
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  Speaker 1: next time on Totally Ranked. We'll see you back here
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday with Pastor John for that.