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Can Delight in God Become Self-Serving? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: So we were just in Isaiah fifty six verses four
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  Speaker 1: and five on Monday, looking at a promise given that
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  Speaker 1: applies to couples who are sorrowfully facing infertility. Now, just
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  Speaker 1: a couple of chapters later in our Bible reading plan,
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  Speaker 1: we read Isaiah fifty eight this week as well, so
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  Speaker 1: it's a good time to tackle this challenging question from
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  Speaker 1: an anonymous man. Hello, Tony and Pastor John, think you
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  Speaker 1: both for the podcast has been such a blessing in
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  Speaker 1: to my life and countless others. My question is about
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah fifty eight, verses two and three, where the people
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  Speaker 1: are described as seeking God daily and delighting to draw
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  Speaker 1: near Him. On the surface, this sounds very much in
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  Speaker 1: line with the idea of Christian hedonism, finding our greatest
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  Speaker 1: joy in God. But despite their religious activities, God rejects
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  Speaker 1: them for being self centered, saying they quote seek your
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  Speaker 1: own pleasure end quote in verse three. So how do
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  Speaker 1: we reconcile this apparent contradiction? How can these people delight
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  Speaker 1: in God and yet still be forsaken for selfishness. It
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  Speaker 1: seems like the issue here is that they're seeking God
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  Speaker 1: was self serving. But I'm curious about how we as
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  Speaker 1: Christians can delight in God without falling into this trap.
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  Speaker 1: How does a Christian hedonist live out this dynamic, balancing
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  Speaker 1: the joy of delighting in God without becoming self centered?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for your thoughts.
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  Speaker 2: It seems to me that most apparent contradictions in the
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  Speaker 2: Bible are intended by God to protect us from careless
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  Speaker 2: uses of some precious truth. When we make an exciting
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  Speaker 2: discovery in the Bible, we're very prone to carry that
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  Speaker 2: discovery in a direction that it was never intended to go.
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  Speaker 2: And then we bump into a statement in the Bible
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  Speaker 2: that seems to contradict the discovery itself. But after looking
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  Speaker 2: carefully at the content text, we realized that the apparently
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  Speaker 2: contradictory statement wasn't intended to nullify the discovery that we
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  Speaker 2: had made, which is true, but to protect us from
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  Speaker 2: misusing it. So that's the principle that I think lies
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  Speaker 2: behind texts like this one in Isaiah fifty eight and
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  Speaker 2: many others. So Isaiah fifty eight one to three says,
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  Speaker 2: declare to my people their transgression to the House of Jacob,
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  Speaker 2: their sins. They seek me daily and delight to know
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  Speaker 2: my ways, as if as if that's crucial, as if
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  Speaker 2: they were a nation that did righteousness and did not
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  Speaker 2: forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of me
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  Speaker 2: righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. Why
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  Speaker 2: have we fasted and you see it not? Why have
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  Speaker 2: we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it?
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  Speaker 2: Then here's God's answer. Behold, in the day of your fast,
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  Speaker 2: you seek your own pleasure and oppress your workers. So
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  Speaker 2: what's the situation here? Says they delight to draw near
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  Speaker 2: to God, they delight to know his ways as if
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  Speaker 2: they did righteousness. They seek pleasure while oppressing their workers.
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  Speaker 2: So what should we make of this is very strange.
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  Speaker 2: What we should make of it is that they are hypocrites.
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  Speaker 2: They're not delighting in God's ways because God's ways are
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  Speaker 2: not to oppress his workers. So what are they doing.
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  Speaker 2: They are enjoying worship services. The worship songs and the
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  Speaker 2: atmosphere and the fellowship are fun, pleasurable, just like TV
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  Speaker 2: is fun. When the worship songs say I delight in God,
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  Speaker 2: they sing I delight in God. But as a f
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  Speaker 2: fifty eight to three makes it plain, they don't because
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  Speaker 2: it says you seek your own pleasure and oppress your workers,
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  Speaker 2: which means you are not finding pleasure in mercy and justice,
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  Speaker 2: which are God's ways. Your so called delight in God
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  Speaker 2: is not overflowing in treating your employers with love and justice.
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  Speaker 2: You are seeking your private pleasures at the expense of
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  Speaker 2: your workers. You're seeking your private pleasure Sunday morning in
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  Speaker 2: worship services. You're seeking your private pleasures in the way
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  Speaker 2: you treat your employees. That's the way Isaiah fifty eight opens.
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  Speaker 2: Now here's the way the chapter ends. It comes back
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  Speaker 2: around to the same issue. It goes like this verse thirteen.
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  Speaker 2: If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from
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  Speaker 2: doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the
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  Speaker 2: Sabbath a delight and a holy day honorable to the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: If you honor it, not going your own ways or
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  Speaker 2: seeking your own pleasure or talking idly, then you shall
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  Speaker 2: take delight in the Lord, and I will make you
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  Speaker 2: ride on the heights of the earth. Very strange, so
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  Speaker 2: God promises. If you will stop turning my Sabbath into
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  Speaker 2: a day of your own private, self indulgent pleasures and
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  Speaker 2: instead count the Sabbath a delight as I designed it,
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  Speaker 2: then you will delight in the Lord. So all this
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  Speaker 2: apparent indictment of delight in Isaiah fifty eight is not
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  Speaker 2: an indictment of true enjoyment of God and his ways. Rather,
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  Speaker 2: it's an indictment of personal self indulgence that does not
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  Speaker 2: truly delight in God for who he is, nor does
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  Speaker 2: it delight in doing good to others. Delight is not
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  Speaker 2: the problem here. Pleasure is not the problem. The problem
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  Speaker 2: is they were not really delighting in God or his ways.
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  Speaker 2: So the apparent contradiction to Christian hedonism is that Christian
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  Speaker 2: hedonism says, delight yourself in the Lord ps I'm thirty seven,
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  Speaker 2: delight in being merciful Hoseiah six, show compassion with cheerfulness
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  Speaker 2: Romans twelve. Find your joy in the joy of others
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  Speaker 2: x twenty, not by oppressing them. And then alone comes
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  Speaker 2: in a parent contradiction, Sinners delight in the Lord, sinners
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  Speaker 2: seek their own pleasure. But then we discover, by looking
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  Speaker 2: carefully at the context, that the function of that a
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  Speaker 2: parent contradiction is to warn us the human heart is
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  Speaker 2: so deceptive that it can even cloak private self indulgent
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  Speaker 2: people oppressing God dishonoring attitudes with an outward show of
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  Speaker 2: enjoying God in worship and making much of his ways.
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  Speaker 2: There are very similar warning texts in the New Testament
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  Speaker 2: that sound like contradictions. Also, for example, Roman fifteen to one,
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  Speaker 2: we who are strong have an obligation to bear with
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  Speaker 2: the failings of the week, and not to please our selves.
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  Speaker 2: Let us please his neighbor for his good, to build
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  Speaker 2: him up. Or for Corinthians ten thirty three, I try
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  Speaker 2: to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my
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  Speaker 2: own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
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  Speaker 2: Or for Corinthians ten twenty four, let no one seek
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  Speaker 2: his own but that of his neighbor. Doesn't say what
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  Speaker 2: you're seeking, just don't seek your own. It's exactly the
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  Speaker 2: same as one Corinthians thirteen five. Rus Corinthians thirteen five
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  Speaker 2: says love seeks not its own. Now, a careless reading
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  Speaker 2: of each of those texts would say, well, I guess
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  Speaker 2: it's wrong to seek my own happiness. Instead, you should
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  Speaker 2: seek the good of others. That's what you would think, Well,
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  Speaker 2: he can't do both. It must be the one or
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  Speaker 2: the other. Now. That would be a careless reading, not
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  Speaker 2: only because we are commanded so many times in the
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  Speaker 2: Bible to seek our own joy in God, but also
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  Speaker 2: because it totally ignores that a person might find his
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  Speaker 2: own happiness in doing good to others. Like you, don't
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  Speaker 2: choose the two between the two, Do I seek my
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  Speaker 2: own happiness or do I seek the good of others?
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  Speaker 2: What if you found your own happiness in doing good
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  Speaker 2: to others, which is exactly what Jesus meant when he
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  Speaker 2: said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what all those texts are warning against is seeking our
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  Speaker 2: own private good limited to ourselves, indifferent to whether anybody
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  Speaker 2: else is included in it or not. And Christian hedonism says,
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  Speaker 2: what makes the pursuit of my pleasure an act of
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  Speaker 2: love is that I'm willing to suffer in order to
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  Speaker 2: include as many people in it as I can. I
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  Speaker 2: want them to taste and experience the very joy that
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  Speaker 2: I am pursuing in suffering for them to bring them
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  Speaker 2: with me. So thank God for parent contradictions in the
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  Speaker 2: Bible that wake us up to how easily we can
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  Speaker 2: miss precious truth and misuse precious truth.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. Yeah, this apparent contradiction in Isaiah fifty eight, where
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  Speaker 1: people seem to delight in God yet are rebuked for selfishness.
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  Speaker 1: It's a solid warning to each of us that genuine
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  Speaker 1: delight in God must overflow in serving others, not in
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  Speaker 1: self indulgence. Such a great word, Pastor John. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: If you have a question that you think will shed
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  Speaker 1: clarity on Christian hedonism, email me through our homepage at
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  Speaker 1: askpastor John dot com. Well, God does not predict history.
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  Speaker 1: God makes history. That's next time to me, Rankey. See
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  Speaker 1: you on Monday.