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The Sadness of Religion vs. The Supremacy of Joy Meet Tiago · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Santa Mari. Mind you viper mosque doors, I got in
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  Speaker 1: the water, Then more yamien Santa Maria, mind the viprasquedors
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  Speaker 1: I got in the water, Then more yamien your ecomposed
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  Speaker 1: repos possible splen.
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  Speaker 2: When you talk about your faith, if you look somber
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  Speaker 2: or even sad, that probably translates a better connection with
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  Speaker 2: transcendence than if you just look joyful. That's why there's
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  Speaker 2: so much room for sadness while believing in God in
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  Speaker 2: a place like Portugal. I'm Diacovaco, I'm forty four. I'm
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  Speaker 2: one of the pastor's here at Yugjadalapa in Lisbon, Portugal.
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  Speaker 2: Although Portugal is not a big country, it's almost nine
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  Speaker 2: hundred years old, and once you'll come to Portugal, you
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  Speaker 2: will never forget the country because it's a very beautiful country.
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  Speaker 2: When we are talking about Christianity in a place like Portugal,
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  Speaker 2: we are always carrying a big weight on our shoulders.
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  Speaker 2: Portuguese are really good convincing you that life is hard.
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  Speaker 2: If you give us a guitar, we will be giving
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  Speaker 2: ourselves completely to the task of telling how hard life is.
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  Speaker 2: For a culture that spends a lot of time telling
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  Speaker 2: that life is art. If you believe in God while
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  Speaker 2: believing that life is art, probably you'll need to be
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  Speaker 2: more on the side of sadness and not so much
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  Speaker 2: on the side of joy. If you ask Portuguese what's
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  Speaker 2: the most religious place in Portugal they can think of,
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  Speaker 2: they will probably tell you Fatima. Catholics believe that Mary
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  Speaker 2: appeared to three young shepherds. Since then it became a
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  Speaker 2: place of Mary and worship. For instance, I will go
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  Speaker 2: walking to Fatima and there are a lot of pilgrims
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  Speaker 2: doing that. They will walk to Fatima, or they will
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  Speaker 2: drag themselves in their knees, or of Portuguese. If something
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  Speaker 2: looks easy, if something does not make you feel burdened,
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  Speaker 2: it's not a serious thing. So if you are thinking
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  Speaker 2: in terms of a spiritual reality, it will have to
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  Speaker 2: give you some kind of burden on your shoulders. This
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  Speaker 2: reality will be much more understood listening to them.
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  Speaker 3: I'm a Fitzilla. I work at a back office at
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  Speaker 3: a bank. I was a Catholic for ten eleven years.
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  Speaker 3: My experience with religion has been I can say heavy,
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  Speaker 3: because I grew up thinking that I had to please
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  Speaker 3: God to deserve something. So region was putting a weight
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  Speaker 3: on the way I I would see myself as being insufficient,
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  Speaker 3: always trying to do good things and never being sure
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  Speaker 3: if it was enough, or not trying to look for
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  Speaker 3: God and not fighting him, not finding joy, just having
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  Speaker 3: sadness all over my life.
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  Speaker 2: The first time I heard about desiring God was through
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  Speaker 2: a friend at the beginning of the church plant, and
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  Speaker 2: he told me about his pastor, Pastor John Piper.
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  Speaker 4: God is most glorified in you when you are most
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  Speaker 4: satisfied in him. God is most glorified in you when
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  Speaker 4: you are most satisfied in him.
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  Speaker 2: Is God really more glorified when I'm more satisfied in him?
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  Speaker 2: Because it looks it doesn't look right when you hear
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  Speaker 2: it for the first time, but then you go and
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  Speaker 2: you read, Oh, He's right. That why joy is such
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  Speaker 2: a central thing about the Christian's life.
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  Speaker 4: There is no final conflict but in your highest exhilaration
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  Speaker 4: and God's highest self glorification, none, no tension, no conflict.
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  Speaker 4: In fact, not only is there no conflict between your
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  Speaker 4: happiness and God's glory, but his glory shines brightly the
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  Speaker 4: more happy you are. If your happiness is in.
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  Speaker 2: Him, it became clear to me that joy was a
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  Speaker 2: central aspect of being a Christian, even when you are
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  Speaker 2: going through hard times and even set times. Once we
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  Speaker 2: read joy in the pages of the Bible. In this way,
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  Speaker 2: you live in a place like Portugal in a way
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  Speaker 2: that you are not looking for suffering so that your
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  Speaker 2: faith can shine, but you are looking for joy because
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  Speaker 2: you are already happy in God. Although you can leave
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  Speaker 2: sad situations. There's a big impact of desiring God in
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  Speaker 2: my personal life as a preacher, as a pastor, and
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  Speaker 2: then thank God, it's something that also belongs to the
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  Speaker 2: congregation to as a whole.
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  Speaker 3: So two years ago I was looking for a church
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  Speaker 3: online and I founded the Lapa as a Baptist church.
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  Speaker 3: Sermon here at Lapa helps me because it's the truth
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  Speaker 3: being told, gospel being preached, and the gospel is powerful
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  Speaker 3: to change our lives.
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  Speaker 2: If God gets glory when we have joined him, joy
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  Speaker 2: becomes not so much something that can happen in your
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  Speaker 2: life depending on circumstances, but becomes the final goal.
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  Speaker 3: I do have sorrows, I do have pain sometimes like
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  Speaker 3: gets hard, I still have that joy. It's clear like
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  Speaker 3: I kind of am a new person.
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  Speaker 2: This is a very counter cultural thing in our country.
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  Speaker 2: So talking about the Gospel giving you a life of joy,
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  Speaker 2: of trust in God.
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  Speaker 3: If we have our joy in something worldly, something present,
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  Speaker 3: something that it ends, we will never have true joy
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  Speaker 3: just knowing that it won't change. It will never change,
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  Speaker 3: You will never not be glorious, it will never not
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  Speaker 3: be good. So this is unchanging. Love is giving purpose,
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  Speaker 3: not in my life.
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  Speaker 2: We are not shy when talking about being happy, because
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  Speaker 2: God rescue does. Once joy becomes central, you point them
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  Speaker 2: to Christ. You point them to joy