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John Piper: Don't Waste Your Life · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: God was very kind to me. When I was seventeen
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: years old in high school, something came alive. I can
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: almost pinpoint the class Missus Clanton's class in English. Something
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: came alive that has never died. I was already walking
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: with Jesus, and so it wasn't faith that came alive.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It was an awakening of the wonder and the weight
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of having one life to live and then its outcome
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: for eternity. No second chances, no retakes like when you
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: do a video, no do overs in a test. One
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: life and then eternity. In nineteen sixty four, we had
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a high school literary magazine called Leaves of Grass, and
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I published a mediocre poem in it. And the quality
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of the poem makes no difference to me whatsoever now,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: But looking back on it, the burden of it is
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: what grips me, because it was an evidence of that
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: coming alive, of the sense of I got one life,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: one life, and I can blow it forever or not.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: So that poem was published, and in it there's a verse.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: It's written from the perspective of being an old man.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I'm seventeen years old when I'm writing it. It's called
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the lost years in the verse, the last like this,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: long I sought for the Earth's hidden meaning. Long as
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: a youth was my search in vain. Now, as I
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: approach my last year's waning, my search I must begin again.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: And everything in me in those days toward the end
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: of high school was saying.
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  Speaker 2: That must never, never, never happen.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Come to the end of life sixty five right now
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  Speaker 1: and say, I can't figure it out.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it's about.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Just coasting, just doing the next thing, just pott thing
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  Speaker 1: around desperately trying to be happy while not thinking, Oh,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: don't let me think about what this is heading for,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: or how heavy and weighty it is to have one life.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Don't let me let me think about that.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I just want to do the next thing and hope
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I don't sink in guilt and frustration. I don't want
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: to come to the end that way. Then that burden,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a sense of the weight and the wonder of having
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: only one life, never left ever, I still think, what
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: if I got left. I don't know what I've got
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: left A year, a minute, This would be a great
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: place to go. It's cool twenty years. My dad was
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: eighty seven when he passed away. That's twenty two more years.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I just know one thing, don't waste it.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: This is just all you've got, and then the outcome.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And that's all you've got, just one and then the outcomes.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So there there rose in me this tremendous sense about purposefulness.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: A lot of people get worked up with the where
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: did we come from? Question?
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: And that's important, but to me, it's only important for
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the where am I going?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Question.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I want to know purpose. I want to know design.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I want to know what am I trying to do?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Where I came from? If that's relevant for that, I
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: want to know about it. But mainly I just want why.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: You know, the Germans have vauxhair and votes Oo. We
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: just have why. Vohair is why, meaning why did this happen?
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Looking at the past cause? And votso is why? What's
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the purpose? What's the point of it all? That's the one.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a VOTSOO guy. I want to know where am
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I heading and what's it for?
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: So purpose?
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I want to know why, the universe, why, color, sound, love, hate.
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  Speaker 2: Evil, good, sports, leisure, work, souls.
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  Speaker 1: Bodies, government, art, beauty, mosquitoes, mosquitos.
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  Speaker 2: I want to know.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Why laughter, marriage, disease, war, me you now this hour?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Why that's the biggest question for me. I've got an
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: hour with you. Why? Why?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: What should what should happen here? I go into the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: pulpit with that question every Sunday. What should happen here?
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: What's the big point of this message in this moment?
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  Speaker 1: Why are you at this conference? What do you want
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  Speaker 1: to happen forever? What ripple effect do you want to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: come from this moment in your life? So that burden
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  Speaker 1: that I wonder, that weight came on me about age seventeen,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and it just doesn't go away. Why do I exist?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: And God was very kind to me because in the
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  Speaker 1: next seven years, so four of them at Wheaton College
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: and three of them at Fuller Seminary. In the next
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: seven years till I was twenty four or twenty five,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: all the big pieces fell into place and they've never changed.
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  Speaker 1: And I am so fortunate. Some of you need some
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: big pieces put in place now at age seventy and
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: others at age seventeen. It's never too late. But for me,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: God was so kind to me that from seventeen to
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, all the big pieces were put in place,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and all I've been doing since then is trying to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: keep my focus narrow because I'm not a fast reader
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not a comprehensive thinker. An I'm an analytical
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  Speaker 1: guy who can handle a little piece of scripture and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: milk it, but I can't do much else. So I
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  Speaker 1: just want the big questions to say central, and I
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  Speaker 1: want to push on them with all mom I want
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  Speaker 1: to squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until the last drop
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  Speaker 1: of significance is out of the big things. And that's
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: that's what I would commend to all of you average folks.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Let me stress for you what I stressed in the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: year two thousand when I spoke to the one day crowd.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I said to them, you know, this is all college
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: students and you're mostly not same thing applies. You don't
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: have to know, I said, And I say to you now,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: you don't have to know a lot of things for
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  Speaker 1: your life to make a huge difference. And I'm talking
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to the older folks, retired and twenty somethings. You don't
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: have to know a lot of things. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: a lot of things. The older I get, the less
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I know, and that's not just because I'm forgetting, just
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: because I'm aware of more and more things that I
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  Speaker 1: don't know, and I have to work hard not to
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  Speaker 1: care about that, lest I try to know them and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: then lose my grip on what I know. But you
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: do need to know a few great things that really matter,
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  Speaker 1: and be willing to live for them with all your
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: might and die for them. The people who make a
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: durable difference. I choose the word durable significantly intentionally. I'm
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: thinking of just your average grandmama, say, or mom or dad,
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  Speaker 1: or just your average person in this room. You won't
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: have a famous global difference, but that's not of the essence.
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  Speaker 1: In order to have a durable difference in the world
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  Speaker 1: that lasts till eternity, you don't have to know a
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  Speaker 1: lot of things. You have to be mastered by a
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  Speaker 1: few things, a few great things. If you want your
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  Speaker 1: life to count, if you want the ripple effect to
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  Speaker 1: go to eternity, then you want to give yourself to
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  Speaker 1: a few great things. You don't have to have a
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  Speaker 1: high IQ. You don't have to have a high EQ.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: You don't have to have good looks or riches. In fact,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: riches will almost certainly get in the way. Not necessarily,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: but almost certainly. Jesus said, you don't have to come
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  Speaker 1: from a fine family, that too can get in the way.
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  Speaker 1: You don't have to go to a fine school, you
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: don't have to go to any school. But you have
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  Speaker 1: to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, glorious things
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  Speaker 1: and be set on fire by them. That's what makes
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  Speaker 1: a life count. So I'm going to mention three of
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  Speaker 1: those things that came clear to me between seventeen and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: twenty four, and that I've just been working on the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: rest of my life, just trying to descern their depths.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I want to push down, down, down, and their application
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: as widely as I can push it into every avenue
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  Speaker 1: of life and culture. So three discoveries that will define
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the unwted life. Number One, there is an absolutely sovereign,
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  Speaker 1: transcendently pure. Those who have known Orsi Sproul's work will
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  Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. There self existing, self sustaining,
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  Speaker 1: incomparably beautiful, all knowing, all wise, all governing, all upholding,
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  Speaker 1: all defining, infinitely valuable, all satisfying God. There is a
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  Speaker 1: God like that he exists, whose purpose in all creation,
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  Speaker 1: in all redemption in all history, in all culture, is
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: to display His glory for the everlasting, ever increasing enjoyment
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  Speaker 1: of his redeemed people. That's discovery number one. A long sentence,
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  Speaker 1: shorten it down. There is a great Holy God who
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  Speaker 1: means to be known and treasured as God. There is
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  Speaker 1: a great Holy God who means to be known truly
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  Speaker 1: and treasured duly. Sometimes rhyme helps people remember he means
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  Speaker 1: to be known truly and treasured duly. He means for
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  Speaker 1: light to shine and heat to boil in regard to
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  Speaker 1: his holy being. You know, I'm sure being at this
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  Speaker 1: conference that God's.
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  Speaker 2: Name Yahweh is used over.
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  Speaker 1: Six hundred times in the Old Testament, and it comes from.
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  Speaker 2: The word be to be.
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  Speaker 1: Exodus three fourteen, Moses says to God, when they ask me,
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  Speaker 1: who sent you? What shall I tell them? And God says,
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  Speaker 1: tell them, I am sent you. My name is I Am?
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  Speaker 1: And I just spent all my life trying to figure
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  Speaker 1: that out. What are the implications that there is a
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  Speaker 1: being who identifies himself as I am? Deal with it.
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  Speaker 1: I simply am. I had no beginning, I will have
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  Speaker 1: no ending.
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  Speaker 2: You're not.
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  Speaker 1: I depend on nothing. Everything depends on me. I am
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  Speaker 1: defined by nothing. I define everything. I am controlled by nothing.
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  Speaker 1: I control everything, I am everything. Just you can spend
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  Speaker 1: a lifetime just coming to terms with the name of God.
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  Speaker 2: Who he is, that he is, that he is changes everything,
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  Speaker 2: doesn't it.
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  Speaker 1: I mean's just everything changes if you live in the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: face of a God who simply God, simply there, and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the universe is like a peanut in his pocket. Only
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that's way too big of an analogy for the universe.
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  Speaker 1: So I meet this God, he stoods coming alive, and
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  Speaker 1: I know beyond the shadow of it out and thongs things.
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  Speaker 1: You just know, right, you know, if my life is
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  Speaker 1: going to have a purpose that is durable and lasts
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  Speaker 1: into eternity and.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't wasted, he's got to tell me what it is. Period.
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  Speaker 2: He's got to define it.
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  Speaker 1: There's no way I can come up with this in
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  Speaker 1: view of just his existence, just his sheer existence, that
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, I think.
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do this.
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  Speaker 1: You're kidding.
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  Speaker 2: He's God.
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  Speaker 1: You are absolutely dependent on him for everything, and you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna decide what to do with your life.
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  Speaker 2: Wake up, wake up? He's God.
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  Speaker 1: So I with the help of Dan Fuller at Fuller
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Seminary and Jonathan Edwards in the End for Which God
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: created the World one of the top five books of
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  Speaker 1: my life. It became crystal clear to me what the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of life is. God designed the universe and created
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  Speaker 1: it and controls it, governs it, runs it will bring
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  Speaker 1: it to consummation in order. And I'll just repeat what
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  Speaker 1: I said, so that in all of creation, all redemption,
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  Speaker 1: all history, all culture, he might display his glory for
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the everlasting and ever increasing enjoyment of his people. So
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: getting God's purpose right for God became foundational forgetting my
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: purpose right for me, And that order is all important.
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  Speaker 1: God's design before my duty. What's your design for the universe.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a little part of it. That must be your
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: design for me. It has been a life defining ministry
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  Speaker 1: defining discovery to see how radically God exalting God's purpose.
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  Speaker 2: Is.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose this has emotionally gripped me as much as anything.
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  Speaker 1: Don't know why. That is just the way I'm wired.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose that God's purpose for the universe is radically
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  Speaker 1: God exalting just holds me like an iron fist. I
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  Speaker 1: can't leave, I can't escape, and I find it exhilarating,
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  Speaker 1: and with some sorrow we say this is a fault line.
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  Speaker 1: It's a fault line that divides families, churches, cultures, and
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  Speaker 1: the world. Either people find God's god exalting purpose for
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  Speaker 1: the universe exhilarating, or they are angered by it. Very
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: few people are neutral once they hear it spelled out.
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  Speaker 1: For me, this has been the central issue theologically and experientially.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I was reading an article in First Things this month
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: by Gerald McDermott on evangelicals, and he divides us up
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: into traditionalists and meliorists. And even though that was a word,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and the meliorists are postmodern, post conservative, post propositional, and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: there are all kinds of names attached to them. And
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: one of the issues he said characterizing that movement is
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a rejection of the old, stale Enlightenment, bifurcation between the
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: mind and the heart and between thinking and feeling. And
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, what what bifurcation? And of course I know
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: what he's talking about. When those things are divided and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: you become a stale, dead, traditional, doctrinaire reform church, you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna lose a generation, just no doubt about it.
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  Speaker 2: You gonna lose me.
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  Speaker 1: This issue of God's God centered purpose for the universe
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  Speaker 1: has been for me both theologically and emotionally central. It
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: has been the key to the life of the mind
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and the key to the life of the soul, the
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: all defining revelation, and the all pervading exhilaration to this day,
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  Speaker 1: forty years later, since those seventeen to twenty four years
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  Speaker 1: in seminary and college, to this day, God's god exalting
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  Speaker 1: purpose for the universe causes me to soar. I love
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: to think about this. I sit at my desk preparing
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  Speaker 1: for talks like this. I love it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: I just sit there. Yes, yes, oh, let me say
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: it again.
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  Speaker 1: I just love to think about God's Godness, God's being
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the point of the universe. And then you go to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the Bible and you find it everywhere. Bring my sons
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  Speaker 1: from Afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: everyone whom I created for my glory. I made the
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  Speaker 1: whole house of Israel cling to me, that they might
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  Speaker 1: be for me a people, a name, a praise, and
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  Speaker 1: a glory. Our fathers rebelled against the most high at
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  Speaker 1: the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name's sake,
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  Speaker 1: that he might make known his power. For my name's sake.
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  Speaker 1: I defer my anger for the sake of my praise.
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  Speaker 1: I restrain it for you for my own sake. For
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  Speaker 1: my own sake, I do it for how should my
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  Speaker 1: name be profane? My glory I will not give to another.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think Isaiah means for us to feel
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: when he writes like that God that's boring, that it's
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a megalomania. I don't think so. I think he means
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  Speaker 1: us to soar after we've repented in dustin ashes. Father,
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  Speaker 1: the hour has come, glorify thy son, that the son
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  Speaker 1: may glorify thee.
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  Speaker 2: What a conspiracy of the son and the Father.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to glorify you now so that you will
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  Speaker 1: be glorified, and I will be glorified in you. So
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  Speaker 1: glorify me that I might glorify you. We'll do it together.
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  Speaker 1: Father will team up and make the universe have its
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: put on Calvary. He comes on that day to be
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  Speaker 1: glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: all who have believed. So it's just gotten clearer and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: clearer and clearer as the years have gone by. That
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: God creates redeems rules in order to put his glory
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  Speaker 1: on display, to exalt it, to make much of it.
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  Speaker 1: But in that first discovery, that long sentence that I
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: gave you, we've only dealt with half of it. Why
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: maybe we shouldn't ask it.
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  Speaker 2: But that's my question, Why would you do this?
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  Speaker 1: God? Why would you go on display in a created universe?
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  Speaker 1: Everywhere the heavens are telling the glory of God, so
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  Speaker 1: is everything else.
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  Speaker 2: Why would you do that?
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  Speaker 1: And his answer is because I want to be glorified
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  Speaker 1: by you. I want to be marveled at by you.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I want to have the infinite worth of my all
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: satisfying beauty reflected back to me in you guess why
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  Speaker 1: I'm going on display for conscious rational in the image
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: of God creatures, so that there would be a fullest
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: possible reflection back to me of all that I am.
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  Speaker 1: That's why I'm going on display in this universe in
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: which I've created you in my image he displays his glory.
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  Speaker 1: Four I said, the everlasting, ever increasing enjoyment of His
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: redeemed people.
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  Speaker 2: So this is absolutely massive for me.
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  Speaker 1: In my twenty two to twenty four years, this is
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  Speaker 1: where this came home to me.
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  Speaker 2: Massive to me.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: That The value of God's glory is reflected in how
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I treasure it, sit I in the value the beauty.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: The worth of God's glory is.
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  Speaker 1: Appropriately reflected back to Him in the degree to which
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I treasure it, enjoy it, embrace, esteem, delight in, and
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  Speaker 1: am satisfied with it over everything on the planet. And
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  Speaker 1: if there is anything that has more of my heart,
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  Speaker 1: more of my passion, more of my affections, it is
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: glorified above him. This was absolutely abasing to me. The
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  Speaker 1: implications take a lifetime to work out. God makes known
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the riches of his glory for our treasuring, our valuing,
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  Speaker 1: our enjoying, and of course, to that end, our knowing.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Think the life of the mind for the sake of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the love of God could have been the subtitle.
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  Speaker 2: When he reveals his glory to us.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't get any honor if we find it boring.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't I don't care how much we know. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the more we know, the worse it reflects upon him
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  Speaker 1: if we find it boring.
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  Speaker 2: A text.
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  Speaker 1: Listen carefully. This is an incredibly controversial text, not because
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: it's vague, but because of what it says. But I'm
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: not gonna go to the controversial part. I'm just gonna
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: go to the really, really, really obvious part. This is
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Romans nine twenty two and twenty three. God desiring to
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: show his wrath, which is part of his glory. God
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: desiring to show his wrath and make known his power.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: So there's two aspects of his glory. There's lots more.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: God desiring to show his wrath and make known his
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: power endured with much patience. There's another piece of his glory,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Here comes my favorite
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: phrase in all the Bible.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: In order too. You know what that means. We've got
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: a purpose.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: He's gonna tell me something about a purpose. Why wrath,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Why power? Why patience?
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, tell me this may help me know how to
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: live an unwated life. What does he say? God shows
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: his wrath, makes known his power, and does with much patience,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: make known the riches of his glory. For the vessels
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: of mercy.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: What for them to be bored? I don't think so.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Not the meaning.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: What to enjoy, to embrace, to exult and to praise,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: to honor, to live, for die, for Surely that's obvious.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: The riches of his glory made known for the vessels
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of mercy. Two pieces, make known the riches of his
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: glory for the vessels of mercy. Get it like this,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: if you've got to support under it, for the vessels
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of mercy to receive with joy, for the vessels of
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: mercy to treasure above all things, for the vessels of
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: mercy to marvel at, for the vessels of mercy to glorify,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: for the vessels of mercy to reflect as the supremely
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: satisfying treasure of their lives. Surely that's why he does everything,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: from wrath, power to patience. He does it so that
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the riches, and they are infinite, will come upon the
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: vessels of mercy, for them, for them.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Preparedness for glory.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: We will spend an eternity, how everlasting, ever increasing.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: You know why I use the phrase ever increasing.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Might sound a little funny to you that Heaven could
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: admit of degrees. It's because I'm finite, John Piper, has
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: a finite heart and finite head. God is infinite. The
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: riches of his glory that are meant to be known
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: by my mind and enjoyed by my heart are infinite.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I'm finite. What does that mean? That means I can't
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: take it all at once. In fact, I can't ever
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: exhaust it ever. So my understanding is that I will
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: spend an eternity climbing one mountain range of God's majesty
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: after another, and in about three billion years, as I
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: pull myself up over the edge of the range that
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I can see, that will stretch off into the millions
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: of miles of distance, range after range after range of
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: glory yet to be known duly and treasured, known truly
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and treasured duly. So he gets the glory in being
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: known truly, and we get the joy in loving him.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Do he is glorified in us when we are most
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: satisfied in him. That's discovery number one. That would be
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: enough for a lifetime. And the implication for this twenty
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: four year old now passionate for purpose in his life
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: is that I should join him. I mean, that just
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: seems so obvious to me, like there's nothing to be
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: thought about here.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: I'm on board.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: If this is your purpose for the universe, I'm there.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: That's all I want to do. I want to so
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: live and so die as to make your glory look
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: supremely valuable.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's the unwated life. Stop now, go home.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Whether you eat or drink, My dad would write me
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: over and over again in letters, son, whether you eat
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: or drink or whatever you do, do all to the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: glory of God, which means do everything to make him
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: look great, which now I understand means so treasure him,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: so value him, so be satisfied in him above all
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: human possibilities of happiness. That you make him look more
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: valuable than anything in your life. That's what it means.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Pray then, like this our Father in heaven, hallowed be
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: your name. I love the Lord's prayer. It's a prayer.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Every one of the sentences is a petition. Used to
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: think it was an acclamation. Hell it be your name
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: is like you are hallowed? Well he is, But it's
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: let your name be hallowed. And I'm every time I pray,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: and I pray it almost every day. I start right here.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Oh God, may your name be hallowed.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Here hellad helload sanctified, revered as holy, revered as other,
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: transcendently pure or she sprolls phrase, magnificent phrase.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: What and found boring no way revered as infinitely valuable,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: revered as supremely satisfying.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, may this.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Happen right here today, then in Noel and Talithan, Carston
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and Ben and Abraham and Barnabas and their wives and
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: twelve children, and now my church and the city, and
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the conferences and ministries like Ligoneer, and out to the nations. God,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: come cause this valuing of your name, treasuring of your name.
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Come, Come, come do this.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: That's what we pray in the first sentence of the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Lord's prayer. It's all about the majesty glory of his
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: name being being embraced and loved, and it's treasured and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: revered and honored and praised, so that the world will
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: see us and say, there, God must be awesome. Let
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: him who serves, which is what I'm trying to do
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: right now, serve in the strength that God supplies, so
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: that in everything God may get the glory through Jesus Christ,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: to whom belongs the dominion forever. So the implication of
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Discovery number one is plain. If God is I am,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: and if He created the universe in order to go
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: on display with the riches of His glory for the
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: vessels of mercy in order that the infinite value of
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: His riches of glory might be obvious in our lives.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Then my life is for me. You know, don't you
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: watching me that there's a difference between purpose and achievement.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: You know I'm a sinner. I fail at this. All
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: I'm doing is defining. I know what I'm on the
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: earth for. God will judge whether I have come even close.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: My wife would have a different judgment than you. Probably
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: you only know the teacher, preacher guy. My kids know
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: another guy, and my wife knows another guy. My elders
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: know another guy, and I love Paul saying, do not
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: judge before the time. I don't even judge myself. The
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Lord will judge on that day when he brings to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: life the secret things of the heart. That's a trembling.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Do I know my own heart? I don't. I know some,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and I trust my merciful Savior for the rest, which
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: leads now to discovery number two, and these next two
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: are shorter. What necessitates discovery number two is that there's
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a massive obstacle between God's purpose and my ability to
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: join him in it. For His purpose is that I
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: would so treasure him that the way I live and
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: die would reflect how supremely valuable he is. And the
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: obstacle is, I hate God. I want to be God
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: to live for nobody else, for gonnas say, I want
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: to be God.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Self. Denial is not in my bones now.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Want anybody telling me what I can like and not like,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: do and not do, love and not love, get out
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: of my faith.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: God.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty big obstacle, and it has another peace
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: to it, namely, he hates me because of that. The
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: wrath of God is on me with such a weight
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: that it should crush me in hell a thousand times yesterday.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: So how will God's purpose then ever be achieved if
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: all human beings are children of wrath, which Paul explicitly
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: says every one of them is in Ephesians two three.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: And here's the second discovery. Jesus Christ, the Son of
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: God incarnate, not own, becomes the means of my seeing
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and savoring the glory of God. But in the very
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: act of overcoming these obstacles, becomes himself the apex of
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: the glory.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: I couldn't see that makes sense.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ enters the world as the God Man, and
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: he does something that covers and conquers my depravity, absorbs
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the wrath of God, so that I can now see
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and savor what I was designed to see and savor.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: And in the very doing of that.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Redeeming he becomes the apex of the glory I was
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: designed to see. That was discovery. Two. Let me give
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: you three passages of scripture that shed light on what
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, because this was there in Nugget
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: in the early years, but only in recent years has
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: it become clearer. I think I've become over the years
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: a more christocentric person than I was twenty years ago.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I love being theocentric in a sense I could argue
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: a long time. Maybe Urci and I will talk about
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: this tonight. Why it's appropriate to exalt God in his
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: holiness as the theme of your ministry rather than Christ,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and then he will hand over the kingdom to the Father,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: and God will be all in all would be a
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: good place to start, but I think I might not
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: have had the balance where it should. I'm not even
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: sure now I have the balance where it should. Let
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: me give you three texts. If esian's one in love,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: God predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the purpose of his will, to the praise of the
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: glory of his grace. So what's clear there is my predestination,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: my adoption into God's family through Jesus Christ is designed
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: to bring about praise for the glory of grace. So
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: now we've got a clarification of the apex of glory revelation.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: It's grace, and the praise is not boredom.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: This is exultation. This is exhilaration.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: You are predestined, you are adopted all through Jesus Christ,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: unto the praise of the glory of grace.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: At the peak.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Text number two two Timothy one nine, he saved us
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: two Timothy one nine. He saved us, called us to
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: a holy calling not because of our works, but because
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: of his own purpose and grace which he gave us
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus, before the ages began. So now this grace,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: which is the apex of the glory we are to
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: praise through the redeeming work of Jesus, was given to
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: us before the world existed. So this is massively clear
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: to me that God's purpose for creating the universe was
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: to get here. Because the grace is given through Jesus
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Christ before the universe exists. This is awesome. This is breathwick.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I'm on to I'm on to the purpose of the
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: universe with way more.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Clarity than before. In the first half of this message,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus Central Incarnate, redeeming.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Through him grace, dreaming to me before anything exists.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: One more text. This is Revelation thirteen eight. The beast
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: will triumph over everyone whose name has not been written
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: before the foundation of the world, in the Book of
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Life of the Lamb who was slave, before there was
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: a universe, there was a book and it had a name,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: And here's the name, the Book of the Life of
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the Lamb who was slain. You couldn't put a clearer
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: point on the universe.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ slaing for sinners.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: The point of the universe, because the universe went on
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: display to show the riches of God's glory. The apex
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: of the riches of God's glory are the riches of
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the glory.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Of his grace.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: The apex of the riches of the glory his grace
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: is Jesus Christ crucified for sinners like me, to cover
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: the wrath of God, cover my depravity, conquer my sin
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: and enable me to see the glory he has become. Amazing, amazing.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: God's purpose was to display his glory. The apex of
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: that glory is his grace. The apex of the display
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: of grace is Jesus Christ. And the apex the climactic
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: moment of the revelation of the glory of grace in
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Christ was his death for sinners like me. What did
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: he do? What did he do?
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Others in this conference have and will say it, but
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: I'll just summarize, because how can you not want to
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: say it. He became a curse for me Galatians three thirteen.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: He bore the condemnation of my sin Romans eight three.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: God made him to be sin who knew no sin,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: so that in him I might become the righteousness of God.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: So my guilt is credited to him, and his righteousness
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: is credited to me. I'm free now from the wrath
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: of God and free from the guilt of my sin.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: And because of all of that, because of all of
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: that crosswork, blood work, death work, the sovereignty of God
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: kicks in behind all the promises of the New Covenant
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: for me, and you know what those are. I will
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: put the fear of me in you, and I will
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: not let you turn from me. Faith is freely given,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: Repentance is freely given. If he's in two eight second
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: tim of the eighty two twenty five, coming to Christ
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: is freely given to me John.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Six forty four. New Birth is freely.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Given to me John three point eight, which means that
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: my depravity, my deadness, my blindness, my distaste for God,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: and my hatred of.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: Him is gone. I'm born again.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Why else would I be exhilarated by God's God's centeredness,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: not having me at the center.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: I love God's God's centeredness.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: And Oh protect me, God, Oh protect me from turning
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: right doctrine into a means of boasting. How subtle is
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: sin in the Calvinist heart and every other heart? What
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: now am I able to see? If He removed all
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the obstacles of wrath and all the obstacles of guilt
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: and sin, and then has been overcoming my depravity by
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: the gift of faith, the gift of repentance, and the
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: gift of new birth, What can I now see? Tewod
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Corinthians four four. The light of the Gospel, of the
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Say
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: it again. This is summary of discovery number two. Between
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: God's purpose to be known and treasured and my treasuring
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: him is a massive obstacle of depravity and wrath. God
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: sends Jesus Christ into the world, and in his covering
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: and conquering my depravity and absorbing God's wrath. In doing that,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: he becomes the apex of the glory. I am now
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: enabled to see last discovery number three before I say it,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: let me connect that. Don't want to jump over this,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Let me connect that with my purpose for living. So
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: how does that affect the unwated life, Well, it just
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: narrows its focus. Now I live and I die in
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: order to show that God's glory in Christ crucified for
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: sinners like me is infinitely valuable. The unwted life is
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: a life lived to show that Jesus is more precious
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: than life. You know how Paul said it, for his sake.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: I have suffered the loss of all things and count
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: them as refuse and are they my gain Christ. That's
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: the longing of my life to get there, live there,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: stay there. Everything like rubbish compared to knowing Jesus that
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: of my own, which comes from law, but the righteousness
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from faith
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: that design the righteous from God that depends on faith,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: that I may share his sufferings, becoming like him in
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: his death. If by any means possible, I might attain
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: the resurrection of the dead and spending eternity with my King,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: my all satisfying, all glorious Jesus Discovery number three. The
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: life that most clearly displays the all satisfying worth and
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: glory of God in Christ is a life of joyful
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: suffering in the service of love. The life that displays
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: the infinite value of the glory of God manifests supremely
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: in Christ crucified for sinners. The life that displays that
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: most clearly is a life of happy suffering in the
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: service of love. And I'll just close by giving you
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: a text and making a comment about it, The Sermon
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: on the Mount five of Matthew roughly eleven to sixteen. Listen,
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: really carefully, see if you put the pieces together before
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: I point them out. Blessed are you when men revile
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: against you falsely.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Rejoice.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: It's crazy right.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: Rejoice in that day.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: Be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, For
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: You are the salt of the earth.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: If the salt has lost its flavor, how shall its
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: saltiness be restored? It's good for nothing but to be
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You're the light
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: of the world. A city staud on a hill cannot
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: be hidden. Neither do men light a lamp and put
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: it under a basket, But on a lampstand that it
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: may give light to all who are in the house.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: And so in the same way, let your light shine,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: so that men may see your good deeds and give glory.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: To your father. That's what the universe is for.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: The question is what's the light? What's the salt? You're
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: the salt. You're the light, And when people taste it,
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: they see it. Whoa tangy, whoa. That's unusual. What's unusual
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: in this text? What's unusual? Not good deeds? Good deeds
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: are not unusual. Plenty of pagans full of good deeds,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: and nobody looks at him and says, whoa God? Nobody?
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: What's unusual, what's really salty, what's really bright, what's extraordinary?
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: What's impossible? In this text one thing joy in the
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: face of persecution because of a reward in heaven. The
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: world cannot do it. They've gotten no reward, and they're
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: not gonna be happy if anybody's beaten them up with lies.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: But you can, and if you do.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: If you are so satisfied in this reward, blessed are
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: you When men revile you and persecute you and say
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: all kinds of slanders against you, Rejoice for your reward
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: is great. If you are so satisfied in your reward
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: that you really can keep doing good for people who
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: hate you, happily, you're off the charts salty. The people
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: will tell you that should be on everything I eat.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: That's incredible, that's awesome.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: That just can't be done unless.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: There's a great, glorious God who satisfies the broken soul
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: of man.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: What's the reward?
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Jesus prayed in John seventeen twenty four. Father, I ask
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: that those whom you have given me may be with
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: me where I am to see My glory. That's it.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: If you want a reward beyond that, there isn't one.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: You can't get greater than the glory of the crucified,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: slain Lamb of God, whose name is over the book
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: from all eternity. So I plead with you, don't waste
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: your life. Look to Jesus. Find in Him and in
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: his suffering for you the apex of the glory of
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: God's grace. Find that in him. Find it in him,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: then embrace him. Be so satisfied in Him that you
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: live and die, proving that He is your supreme treasure.