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Transcript

I Don’t Feel God’s Love — What Can I Do? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Welcome back to the podcast. Today we look again at life when it's at
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  its darkest. Christians often go through dark seasons and sometimes long dark seasons.
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  Maybe that's you right now. Maybe this episode is providentially put into your life
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  right now for a reason. This is the context for today's email from a
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  young man named Joshua. Joshua lives with his dad in California. Dear Pastor
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  John, thank you for this podcast. Is there anything I can do to
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  help God help my dad? We're not in the best living situation, and
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  although we've prayed, we haven't found a new place to live. I'm actively
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  pursuing the Lord in my mornings and trying to lead my dad here. Yet
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  he still struggles with his faith. Just last night, he said that he
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  doesn't feel God's love for him as a son. Life is hard for him
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  right now and God feels distant to him. What can I say and how
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  can I pray for a dad who does not feel God's love? Joshua,
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  Here's what I would want my son to do for me if I were in
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  a dark place like your dad is right now, and I could be there.
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  I have been there. There's no Christian who doesn't experience seasons when God
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  feels distant or when we don't feel his love as sweetly as we would like
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  to. So first I would want you, my son, to speak the
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  truth to me about the objective reality of the love of God in the historical
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  act of the death of his son. Even though your dad does not now
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  feel the preciousness of the love of God in giving his only son, he
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  needs to hear it. Faith comes by hearing over and over, not just
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  at the beginning. Make the connection for him between the love of God and
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  the death of Jesus, because that's the rock solid, objective foundation of our
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  feelings of being loved. For example, Romans five six to eight, while
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  we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly,
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  for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good
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  person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love. So
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  he shows, he shows, He demonstrates his love for us in that while
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  we were still sinners, Christ died for us Galatians two twenty. The life
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  I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
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  me and gave himself for me. First John four ten in this is love,
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  not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his
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  son to be the propitiation for our sins. John fifteen thirteen. Greater love
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  has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends,
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  and that precious, present, tense word loves in Revelation one five.
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  He loves us, loved as in most places. He loves us and has
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  freed us from our sins by his blood. That's what we need to hear.
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  That's what I would need to hear, and your dad needs to hear.
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  When our feelings don't correspond to reality, we need rock solid, objective
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  historical truth of the death of Jesus. Number two. If I were you
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  dead, I would want to be reminded that the love of God for me
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  was not only shown to me when Christ died, but also when He made
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  me alive and gave me the mustard seed of faith that I'm struggling to hold
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  onto. Ephesians two. For God being rich in mercy because of the great
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  love with which he loved us made us alive together with Christ. If I
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  have any life in me at all, small as it feels right now,
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  it is owing to the great love of God for me in making me alive.
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  Number three, Remind your father that when God made us his own by
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  his great love, nothing can now separate us from him Romans eight thirty eight.
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  I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
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  nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height
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  nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us
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  from the love of God in Christ, Jesus our Lord. Number four,
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  surprise him with a passage he may never have thought about. Micah seven Versus
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  eight and nine. I love this passage. I've called it gutsy guilt.
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  Rejoice not over me, O, my enemy. When I fall, I
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  shall rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light
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  to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned
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  against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He
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  will bring me out to the light. I shall look upon his vindication.
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  Wow, even when we sin our way into darkness, the child of God
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  can speak with boldness to the darkness and say, darkness, you will not
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  have the last word. Even the God who put me here in discipline,
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  may darkness cover me, He will bring me out. He will execute judgment
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  for me, not against me. That's what I call gutsy guilt for the
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  justified children of God. And then take your dad fifth to Psalm want seven
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  to twelve and remind him that even when darkness covers us, and wherever we
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  go in our weariness and lack of feeling, God is there, and he
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  is our light. Where shall I go from your spirit? Where shall I
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  flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
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  If I make my bed and shield, you are there. If I take
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  the wings of the morning and dwelled in the uttermost parts of the sea,
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  even there, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold
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  me. If I say, and this is so relevant for his dad,
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  if I say, surely darkness shall cover me, and the light about me
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  be night. Even the darkness is not dark to you, Oh God,
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  the night as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
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  That's Psalm one thirty nine seven till the seven to twelve. And then
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  add this promise for a sweet application of that psalm, namely Psalm thirty verse
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  five. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning
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  and finally remind him that the apostle. Paul knew that the struggle to feel
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  the love of Christ would be part of the Christian warfare, so he taught
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  us how to pray about it in Ephesians three, verses eighteen and nineteen.
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  I pray that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is
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  the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of
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  Christ that surpasses knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God.
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  The amazing thing about that prayer is that Paul shows us that it takes strength
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  to comprehend the love of Christ. There is a kind of soul strength that
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  God gives in answer to prayer, which enables us to grasp and feel and
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  enjoy the love of God in Christ for us personally. So I pray,
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  Joshua that you will be filled with peace and joy and hope as you share
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  these things with your father, and you can tell him that our little apj
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  band here is praying for him. Yeah. Amen. Thank you Pastor John
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  for always being willing to field questions on the podcast when it comes to the
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  darkest seasons of life. Appreciate that and if you want to ask Pastor John,
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  and maybe you have other questions related to your own season of darkness,
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  type out your question and email it to us and ask Pastor John at Desiring
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  God dot org. Well, next week we change gears to talk about books.
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  How have books changed John Piper's life? And which books have changed John
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  Piper's life? Those are two questions and they're both on the table next week
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  Monday and Thursday. I'm your host, Sonny Rankie. We'll see you back
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  here on Monday