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Brothers, Tell Them Not to Serve God | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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Reformed thinking. Welcome to the deep dive.
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We're here to unpack compelling ideas, and today, well, we're
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diving into something pretty radical.
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It's a concept that might just flip your understanding of how
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you relate to the divine. We're looking at a specific,
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maybe surprising, thought from John Piper's writings,
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particularly where he suggests pastors should believe or not
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tell them not to serve God. Yeah, that's definitely a line
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that makes you stop and think, doesn't it?
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And our goal here in this deep dive is really to get our heads
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around what that paradoxical instruction actually means.
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We want to uncover the the liberating truths it points to
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about God's nature, about his very being and how we should
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interact with Him, making sure always that all the credit, all
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the acknowledgement goes straight back to Him.
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It really challenges a lot of ingrained assumptions.
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It really does. So this conversation, it's an
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invitation really for you, listening to maybe reevaluate
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how you approach God, how you think about your interaction
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with him. So yeah, settle in.
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This definitely goes against some conventional thinking and
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it might just shift things for you.
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OK, so let's try and open up this paradox.
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Tell them not to serve God. I mean, that sounds startling,
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especially when you put it next to other things we read like in
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Psalm 100, you know, worship the Lord with gladness.
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But then you have Jesus himself in Mark 10 saying the Son of Man
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came not to be served. How?
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How do these ideas even sit together?
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They feel like they're pulling opposite ways.
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That's exactly the tension, right?
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That's what we need to unpack. And you're right, worship
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activity for God. Those are definitely biblical
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ideas, no question. But there's a certain kind of
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mindset, in particular way of thinking about serving or
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waiting on God, that actually diminishes his worth.
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It makes him seem smaller and needier.
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And that approach, surprisingly perhaps, can almost be seen as a
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kind of defiance. Defiance.
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How so? Because it misunderstands who he
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is at his core. The whole point Piper's making,
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as I see it, is to guard against any approach, any action on our
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part that lessens the glory of God as the all sufficient
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provider. It's about protecting the truth
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of his absolute self-sufficiency.
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If we come to him thinking he needs our effort or our strength
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or our contributions, well, we're fundamentally
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misrepresenting him. It's like offering a candle to
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the sun. You know it's not just wrong, it
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misses the entire point of the sun's nature.
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OK, that makes sense. It connects directly to that
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core teaching about God's absolute sufficiency, doesn't
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it? I'm thinking of Acts 17, verses
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24 and 25. That passage seems key here.
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It says God is not served by human hands as though he needed
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anything, since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath
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and everything. Exactly.
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That passage is foundational for this whole discussion.
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And think of what that implies. It's huge.
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God is the ultimate giver, period.
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He possesses everything. He lacks nothing, absolutely
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nothing. He's self existent.
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He's the source, the origin of all life, all breath, all
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sustenance for everything that is.
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We literally cannot add anything to him, not to his being, His
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resources, his glory. So any attempts to give him
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something he needs is just fundamentally flawed.
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Precisely, Piper uses his great analogy imaginable stream,
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trying to pour his water back into the giant spring that feeds
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it, trying to, you know, help the swing out fill it.
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Up right, That's absurd. The spring is the source.
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Exactly. It's absurd and picture it helps
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us grasp how illogical it is to think God somehow needs our
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contributions or that we could meet his needs as if he had any.
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God is always the benefactor, always the giver.
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He's never ever the beneficiary of what we do.
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He gives freely, infinitely. He doesn't receive from us to
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fill some gap in himself. And understanding that really
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understanding it should lift this huge weight off our
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shoulders. You know this pressure to
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perform, to do more, be better, to somehow earn his favor or
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meet his supposed needs. He has none.
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He's the supply. That image of the stream and the
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spring is really helpful. It clarifies things a lot.
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So if God is this ultimate self-sufficient giver who lacks
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nothing, what is it that really sets our God apart from all the
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other, you know, so-called gods or deities people have imagined?
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How does he operate differently? That's a great question because
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it points to something truly unique about Him.
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Isaiah 64 verse 4 gives us a really powerful insight here.
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It says that God acts for those who wait for Him.
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Think about that. He acts for those who wait.
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That's completely different from most other religious systems,
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right? Where the gods demand strenuous
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effort, rituals, sacrifice. Yeah, where people have to do
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things to get the gods to act or to appease them.
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Exactly. Those systems often put the
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burden on the worshipper to perform, to earn favor.
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But our guy doesn't operate like, say, an employer who needs
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staff to get the job done. It's the opposite.
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He demonstrates his complete sufficiency, his majestic
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independence, by doing the work himself.
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He glorifies himself by taking the initiative, by acting
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powerfully for his people, not because they've somehow earned
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it or enabled him, but because they've learned to wait on him,
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to depend on him. OK, so he's the one who acts.
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What does that mean for us then? What's our role?
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If he's doing the work, are we just supposed to sit back and
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watch? What does waiting look like?
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No, it's not passive observation, but our posture.
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Our fundamental stance is 1 of radical dependence.
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Our proper role, as Piper describes it based on scripture,
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is to wait for the Lord and trust his action.
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Now waiting here isn't thumb twiddling, it's an act of trust
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and expectant looking. To Him it means our own
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activity. The things we do should flow
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from that. Waiting and trusting.
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OK, so it's not that we do nothing but the source and
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motivation of our actions different?
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Precisely. It's not stemming from a sense
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that we need to help God out or complete his work for him.
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We're not called to be his assistants in the sense of
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supplying him with power or resources he lacks.
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Instead, we're called to be recipients, Recipients of his
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powerful initiating work. It's subtle, maybe, but it's a
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huge shift in perspective. We live from a place of
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receiving His grace and strength, not primarily from
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giving or earning. Right, and that challenge is a
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really common perception people might have about the gospel,
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doesn't it? Like is the good news basically
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your recruitment Dr. Is God putting up a help wanted sign?
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That's such a common misunderstanding, and Piper
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addresses it head on. He says quite bluntly, the good
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news is not a help wanted ad, it is a help available ad.
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Help available. Yeah, God isn't looking for
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assistance the way a boss hire staff because the company would
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fold without them. He's not scouting for talent,
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looking for people to contribute their own inherent strength to
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his cause. Instead, he's looking for those
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who will let him, who will permit him to act powerfully in
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them and through them, those who will actually rely on his
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strength. That's the key difference.
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So it's less about what we bring to the table and more about our
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willingness to depend on him. Exactly.
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Think about Two Chronicles 16 verse 9.
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It says God's eye search the whole earth.
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Why? To give strong support to those
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whose heart is completely his. He's looking for hearts oriented
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toward Him, ready to receive his strong support.
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Piper uses another vivid picture here.
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God isn't like a scout looking for star players to win his
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games, as if he needed our skills.
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Instead, God himself is portrayed as like an unstoppable
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fullback, ready to take the ball and score the winning touchdown
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for anyone who simply trusts him to win.
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He puts all the emphasis on his initiative, his power, his
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decisive action. He's the one who achieves the
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victory. Our part is trusting Him to do
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it for us and through us. It totally changes the dynamic
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from striving to trust independency.
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That's a really powerful image, the unstoppable fullback.
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So if God is the one carrying the ball, who does he actually
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call into a relationship with him?
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Who are the people he brings onto his team?
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If we can use that analogy, is it the strong, the capable, The
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already skilled? Well, this is where the contrast
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gets even sharper and maybe even a bit shocking.
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Think about how, say, Uncle Sam recruits for the Army.
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Who do they want? The healthy, the strong, the
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able bodied. Right, those who contribute
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their strength and skills. But Jesus Christ, he operates
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completely differently. Piper puts it starkly.
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Jesus won't enlist you unless you were sick.
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Unless you're sick. Yeah, it directly echoes what
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Jesus himself said in Mark chapter 2 verse 17.
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Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who
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are sick. I came not to call the
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righteous, but sinners. So the core idea here is that
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our relationship with God, Christianity itself, is
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described as being like convalescence, like recovering
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from an illness. Convalescence.
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OK. And if you're a patient, think
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about it. Do you serve your doctor?
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Do you try to assist the physician?
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No, of course not. You trust them, you take their
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advice, you receive their care. Exactly your posture is 1 of
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trusting them for good advice, for the right prescription, for
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their expert help. You are the recipient of care,
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not the provider of assistance. So applying that spiritually,
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things like the Sermon on the Mount for instance, we often see
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it as this list of incredibly difficult commands we have to
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somehow achieve a job description, all those.
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Right. But within this framework,
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Piper's outlining the sermon on the them out isn't an employer's
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job description. It's more like doctors medical
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advice. It's wisdom given for our good,
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for our spiritual health and recovery.
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It underscores that we're receiving guidance for our
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benefit. And the analogy goes even
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deeper. God isn't just the doctor
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writing the prescription. He's also like the compassionate
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nurse who helps us in our weakness, who lifts our head
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when we can't, who puts the spiritual spoon in our mouths.
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And even more than that, he is the medicine.
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He's the restorative remedy itself.
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It shows he's incredibly comprehensive care, his
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initiative in our healing, and just how utterly dependent we
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are on him every step of the way, from diagnosis to recovery.
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It's his grace, His action, not our contribution.
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Wow. OK, so if God doesn't need our
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strength, our effort, our contributions, in that sense, is
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there anything you can actually give him, Anything we can offer
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that doesn't somehow diminish his worth by implying he lacks
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something? What's an acceptable offering,
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if you like, that truly acknowledges who he is?
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That's a really important question because it gets to the
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heart of what genuine interaction with God looks like
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from our side. And you're right, God definitely
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doesn't need our sacrifices because he's hungry or lacking.
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Psalm 50 makes that incredibly clear.
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Verses 9 to 12 he basically says if I were hungry I wouldn't tell
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you the world is 9 and everything in it.
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Right, she owns it all already. Exactly.
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So he doesn't need our stuff, but there is something he asks
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us to give him our anxieties. Our anxiety.
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Yeah, First, Peter 5 or 7. Cast all your anxieties on him
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because he cares for you. Think about what that act
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signifies. When we cast our anxieties, our
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worries, our burdens onto him, we are demonstrating our
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complete reliance on him. We're admitting we can't handle
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it, and in doing that, we actually validate his complete
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sufficiency. We acknowledge our weakness and
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his immense capability. It aligns perfectly with him
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being recognized as the ultimate provider, the one who can handle
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it all. So giving him our anxieties
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isn't giving him something he needs to possess, like gold or
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cattle. It's giving him the burden we
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cannot carry, thereby magnifying his strength and care.
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It's an act of trust he welcomes.
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That's actually really freeing. Giving him our weaknesses, our
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worries, is the offering that honors his strength.
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OK, so let's connect this to justification.
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How do we become right with God if it's not through our own
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effort, our own work? How does justification by faith
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fit into this picture? This is central to Reformed
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understanding. Absolutely central and Romans
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chapter 4, verses four and five speaks directly to this.
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Paul writes now to the one who works.
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His wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.
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Makes sense, right? If you work, you earn your pay.
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Right. It's owed to you.
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But Paul continues to the one who does not work but trusts
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him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as
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righteousness. So righteousness, our right
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standing before God, is explicitly presented as a gift,
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not wages earned. If we could achieve it by our
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work, our striving, our religious performance, then it
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wouldn't be grace. It would be a debt God owed us.
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Which is impossible. Exactly.
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Therefore, in this whole transaction of justification,
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God is the Workman. He's the one doing the crucial
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work. He gets all the credit for being
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the generous benefactor of grace.
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He initiates it. He accomplishes it through
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Christ. He's not the beneficiary of our
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activity. We don't work for justification.
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We trust him. Who justifies.
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It means our rightness with God is totally His doing, His gift,
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not our achievement that takes an impossible burden off of.
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Us. OK, that clarifies
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justification. It's 100% God's work received by
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faith. But then what about after that?
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What about sanctification, our ongoing growth in holiness, in
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goodness? Is that where our effort finally
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kicks in? Do we take over the reins then?
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That seems to be a common way of thinking.
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It really is a common thought process, isn't it?
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OK, justification is by grace. Now I have to work hard to grow,
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but again, the consistent message is that sanctification
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is also fundamentally God's work in US.
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Look at First Corinthians one verse 30.
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It says Jesus Christ became for us our righteousness and
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sanctification and redemption. He is both.
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OK, both righteousness and sanctification?
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Yes. And remember that sharp warning
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Paul gives in Galatians 3, verses 2 and three.
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He asks them, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being
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perfected by the flesh? Right, that's a powerful
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challenge. It is, and the flesh there isn't
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just about obvious sins. It refers to human self-reliance
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at our own ability, religious effort done in our own strength,
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apart from dependence on the spirit.
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Paul is highlighting the complete folly of trying to
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achieve spiritual growth through our own striving after we've
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been saved by grace. The principle has to be
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consistent. The same God who began the good
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work in you at justification is the one who will carry it on to
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completion in sanctification. So relying on our own efforts
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for growth is actually counterproductive.
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It's worse than counterproductive.
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Paul suggests it leads towards spiritual death.
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Rowan's 8.33 warns if you live according to the flesh, you will
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die. He's talking about that self
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reliant religious effort apart from the spirits enabling power.
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So Piper's point holds true here as well.
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Our very spiritual lives, our growth, depend on not trying to
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work for God in that sense of earning or contributing our own
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strength, both for getting right with Him initially and for
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growing closer to Him continually.
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God remains the primary worker. This frees us from that
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exhausting cycle of trying harder and feeling like we're
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failing, and draws us into dependence on His ongoing grace.
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Wow, OK, this perspective really does challenge so many common
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assumptions about the Christian life.
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So if these conventional ideas of serving God in the sense of
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assisting him actually diminish him, then what does true
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activity toward God look like? How do we genuinely relate to
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him in a way that honors his greatness?
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Well, if we start from the place that God doesn't need our
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assistance, then our whole understanding of activity
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towards Him gets redefined. There's a beautiful picture in
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Psalm 123 verse 2. It says, Behold, as the eyes of
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servants look to the hand of their master, so our eyes look
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to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.
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Looking to the master's hand for what?
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For provision, for direction, for mercy, the focus is on
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receiving from the Master. So this suggests the genuine
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service, genuine relating to God, is fundamentally about
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receiving mercy, not offering assistance.
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It's a posture of humble dependence, constantly looking
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to his hand for what he will give.
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Piper argues that any attempt to break away from this dependence
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to sort of get off the divine dole, as he puts it, to try and
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establish some kind of equal partnership with God where we
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contribute our part and he contributes his.
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That scene is defiance. It's a revolt against the
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creator creature distinction. Because he's the giver, not a
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business partner. Exactly.
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God gives mercy. He doesn't barter.
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He doesn't trade favors. Our good actions, our obedience,
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should flow from having received His mercy, not be an attempt to
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earn it or pay Him back. This is such a paradigm shift.
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It feels, well, almost upside down compared to how many people
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approach faith. How can we make this more
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concrete? How does this reorientation play
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out in everyday life and motivation?
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OK. Let's try that analogy Jesus
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uses. It's actually quite helpful
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here. Matthew 6.24 You cannot serve
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God and money. Right, familiar verse.
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That juxtaposition, God and money, holds a key clue,
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according to Piper. Think about how someone serves
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money. What does that actually mean?
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Well, you don't help money. You don't try to meet money's
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needs. Right.
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Serving money means believing its promise, the promise that it
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will bring you happiness, security, joy, whatever.
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And then you act. You arrange your life so that
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money's perceived benefits become accessible to you for
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your good. OK.
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Yeah, you work for it, save it, invest it all to get what you
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think money offers you. Exactly.
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You don't put your effort at money's disposal for it's good.
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You arrange things so money's power is at your disposal for
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your good. Now apply that same logic to
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God. Serving God in this redefined
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sense means accepting His promise, His promise of supreme,
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lasting joy found in Him, and then living by that faith,
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arranging our lives, making choices, pursuing disciplines so
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that His strengths, His resources, His infinite supply
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will always be accessible to us for our ultimate good.
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So it's the complete opposite of trying to put our meager
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strength at his disposal for his benefit.
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Precisely. It's arranging our lives to tap
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into His infinite strength for our benefit, our eternal
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benefit, our deepest joy. This is the radical
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reorientation. Our actions, our disciplines,
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our obedience, they aren't done to benefit God or fill His
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needs. They are done to position
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ourselves to continually receive His overflowing grace, His
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guidance, His strength, His joy. Our whole spiritual life becomes
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about Him giving and us learning to receive and respond in trust.
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It changes the motivation for everything.
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OK, that analogy is incredibly helpful.
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Serving God like we wrongly serve money, arranging things to
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access the benefit. But then the immediate question
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that pops up is about obedience. If our posture is primarily
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about receiving benefits from God, does obedience still
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matter? Does this view somehow sideline
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God's commands? Not at all.
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That's a crucial point. Obedience remains absolutely
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central, but it's understood differently.
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It's the obedience of a recipient of benefits, not the
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obedience of an employee earning wages.
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Can you give an example? Sure.
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Think about a patient obeying their doctor's instructions.
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Why do they do it? To get well for their own
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health. Exactly for their own benefit.
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Or think of the convalescent center, as paper puts it,
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trusting and following the therapist, sometimes difficult
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advice. Why?
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To recover. Or even more starkly, imagine a
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paralyzed patient allowing the nurse to administer the
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restorative medicine. That allowing that cooperation
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is a form of obedience for their own healing.
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Our obedience to God's commands is like that.
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It's the way we maintain our connection to the source of life
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and health. It's how we stay in a position
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to receive what the Divine Physician provides for our
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ultimate good. So following the prescription,
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not to help the doctor, but to heal ourselves.
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Precisely. We obey for our benefit because
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his ways lead to life, and crucially, because God is always
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the giver. In this dynamic, He's the one
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who gets the recognition. He's the benefactor.
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The giver gets the glory. Our obedience doesn't earn his
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favor. It aligns us with the flow of
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His grace, Grace for our good and His glory.
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That clarifies the role of obedience beautifully.
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It fits within this framework of receiving.
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So putting it all together with this reoriented view, what's the
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highest aim? What's the ultimate goal of all
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our activity toward God? Where does all of this lead?
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The ultimate aim, the crowning purpose, is always, always God's
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glory. First, Peter chapter 4 verse 11
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puts it so clearly. Whoever serves or relates to
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others, ministers must do it as one who serves by the strength
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that God supplies. By the strength God supplies.
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Yes, and why? In order that in everything God
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may be glorified. You see, even when we are most
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active, most engaged, living out our faith, pursuing good works,
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we are still fundamentally recipients of His grace, His
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enablement. We are operating on His supplied
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strength. And God, Piper insists, we'll
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never, ever share the glory that belongs solely to the
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benefactor, the ultimate giver. So he remains the source and
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therefore receives the credit. Always he is the source of all
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good, so he rightly receives all the recognition.
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So practically then, day-to-day, what does this mean for us if we
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embrace this understanding? It means absolutely we should
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work diligently. We should be obedient to His
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commands. We should share the good news.
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We should pursue holiness. But as we do all these things,
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we have to constantly remember deep down it is not I but the
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grace of God that is with me, as Paul says in First Corinthians
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15.10. And we remember Philippians 2.13
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that it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His
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good pleasure. He works in us, the willing and
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the doing. Yes, and we should be careful,
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as Romans 15.18 suggest, to only speak of what Christ has
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accomplished through me. That's the crucial final
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emphasis in all our activity. All are related to God.
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He must be the giver. He must be the initiator, the
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enabler, and consequently He must receive all the
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recognition, all the glory. This frees us from the burden of
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self-reliance and allows us to joyfully participate in His
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work, knowing it's all flowing from Him.
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It truly changes everything. It really does.
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This has been, well, quite a deep dive and genuinely
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liberating. I think just recapping that core
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idea. Our true posture before God
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isn't about trying to help him out, but about a radical
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dependence on his complete sufficiency.
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It's about constantly being in a position to receive his grace,
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his strength, his mercy. And doing that ensures that all
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the recognition, all the glory for any good that happens goes
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rightly to him alone. It reframes everything.
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It absolutely does, and perhaps we should leave you, the
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listener, with that provocative thought we started with directly
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from Piper. Until the people understand
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this, brothers tell them not to serve God.
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That's such a striking way to put it.
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Really makes you pause. It does, doesn't it?
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And it really challenges you listening right now to think
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about what this means for you. What is this reoriented
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understanding mean for your daily walk, How you approach
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your faith, your activities, your prayers, how you view your
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interaction with God? What might need to shift in your
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perspective, maybe even in your actions, based on this?
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For instance, how might viewing God is the constant giver and
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yourself as the constant receiver change how you faith a
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difficulty or approach your spiritual disciplines?
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Yeah, lots to chew on there. I really invite you to keep
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contemplating this God's nature as the ultimate all sufficient
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giver and how recognizing that truth might just reshape your
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entire spiritual life. It's potentially life changing
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stuff.