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Seven Promises That Have Kept John Piper · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, one of the most common family of questions that
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  Speaker 1: we receive are all related to the topic, but what
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  Speaker 1: it means to have a genuine relationship with God? How
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  Speaker 1: do you get one? A genuine relationship with God? How
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  Speaker 1: do you get it? And how do you keep it?
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  Speaker 1: And of course that line of thinking will eventually lead
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  Speaker 1: you to a big hurdle. Why does God sometimes withdraw
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  Speaker 1: his presence from us? Why does he do it, how
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  Speaker 1: does he do it, what does it feel like? And
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  Speaker 1: how does all that work? That's the question next time,
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  Speaker 1: why does God sometimes withdraw his presence from us? But
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  Speaker 1: today we have a question about how do you find
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  Speaker 1: this authentic relationship to begin with? And is a question
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  Speaker 1: troubling a woman named Elena pastor John. Hello to you,
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  Speaker 1: she writes, I write with a heavy heart. I've recently
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  Speaker 1: concluded that I treat the Bible as literature and treat
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  Speaker 1: Christianity as a social culture, meaning I study both from
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  Speaker 1: an outsider's perspective, lacking personal conviction. I do think the
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  Speaker 1: Bible is true, but I haven't experienced a close or
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  Speaker 1: personal relationship with Christ at all. Feels wrong and dishonest
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  Speaker 1: to describe my faith as walking with Christ when I
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  Speaker 1: so rarely feel God's presence. How do I move from
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  Speaker 1: what feels like being an outsider to the faith to
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  Speaker 1: becoming a genuine Christian believer?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, Elena, God has a thousand ways to bring you
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  Speaker 2: to Himself in the kind of experience you long for,
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  Speaker 2: And unless I am badly mistaken, I think every one
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  Speaker 2: of those thousand ways would involve one way or the
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  Speaker 2: other God's word portraying for you some particular greatness or
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  Speaker 2: beauty or value of God and what He's done for
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  Speaker 2: you in Jesus Christ. So what I'm going to do
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  Speaker 2: in these few minutes is pray that God would touch
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  Speaker 2: your heart with his word as I simply tell you
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  Speaker 2: some of my favorite promises that give glimpses into what
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  Speaker 2: God and his Son are like. Faith comes by hearing,
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  Speaker 2: and my prayers that your faith will be awakened to
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  Speaker 2: the kind of authenticity that you long for by hearing.
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  Speaker 2: I may not feel as outside Christianity as you do
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  Speaker 2: right now, but I do feel the danger of that
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  Speaker 2: tendency in me. And these are some of the promises
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  Speaker 2: God has used to keep me from drifting away. And
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  Speaker 2: if they've if the head that functioned from me to
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  Speaker 2: keep me. Perhaps God may use them to draw you
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  Speaker 2: back into what or perhaps for the first time into
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  Speaker 2: what you long for. So here we go. I think
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  Speaker 2: I have seven glimpses of God for you. One I
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  Speaker 2: think the most foundational promise in the Bible is Romans
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  Speaker 2: eight thirty two. He who did not spare his own son,
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  Speaker 2: but gave him up for us all, will he not
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  Speaker 2: also with him freely give us all things, Which means
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  Speaker 2: if God has done the hardest thing for us, sacrifice
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  Speaker 2: his most precious son, then the thousand acts of help
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  Speaker 2: that we need in life and death are easy for
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  Speaker 2: him to do. If he did the hardest thing for us,
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  Speaker 2: he will most certainly do the easy things, which is
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  Speaker 2: everything we need. So we trust Him with our lives.
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  Speaker 2: Number two, which means that if the death of Christ
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  Speaker 2: guarantees God's thousandfold blessings forever. We can understand why Paul
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  Speaker 2: said in Second Corinthians one twenty all the promises of
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  Speaker 2: God find there, yes in Christ. That is why it
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  Speaker 2: is through him that we utter our amen to God
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  Speaker 2: for his glory. Christ paid with his lifeblood for every
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  Speaker 2: promise in the Bible for his people. Every promise is
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  Speaker 2: bought by Jesus for those who are in Christ. Every
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  Speaker 2: one of them belongs to us as we are in Christ,
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  Speaker 2: and we are in Christ if we receive and treasure
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  Speaker 2: Him and hold fast to him as just that, just that,
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  Speaker 2: the Savior who secures every promise for sinners like us
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  Speaker 2: who trust him, amazing, every promise secured by the blood
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  Speaker 2: of Jesus. Number three. Oh, how many hundreds and hundreds
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  Speaker 2: of times I have entered a situation that felt hopeless
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  Speaker 2: and impossible, or just scary and awkward, And as I entered,
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  Speaker 2: preached to myself these words from Isaiah forty one to ten.
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  Speaker 2: Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed,
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  Speaker 2: for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I
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  Speaker 2: will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous
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  Speaker 2: right hand. Elena when I combine those words Isaiah forty
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  Speaker 2: one ten with Second Corinthians one twenty, that every promises
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  Speaker 2: yes in Christ. I hear the very voice of God,
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  Speaker 2: and you can doo the very voice of God speaking
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  Speaker 2: to me in those words, I John Piper, I Almighty God,
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  Speaker 2: creator of heaven and Earth. I am with you. I
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  Speaker 2: am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you.
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  Speaker 2: I will uphold you. And oh, how precious, how delicious
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  Speaker 2: are those personal words of God Almighty spoken directly to
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  Speaker 2: me in my unworthiness. Words bought. That's why I can
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  Speaker 2: have them bought with the blood of Jesus for an
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  Speaker 2: unworthy John Piper, and they can be yours, Elena. Four.
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  Speaker 2: It is almost beyond imagination that the creator of the universe,
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  Speaker 2: infinite in holiness, in transcendent purity, could actually rejoice overdoing
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  Speaker 2: me good. Listen to this new covenant, which means blood
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  Speaker 2: bought promise in Jeremiah thirty two forty I will not
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  Speaker 2: turn away from you to do you good, and I
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  Speaker 2: will rejoice over you, John Piper, Elena, to do you
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  Speaker 2: good with all my heart and with all my soul,
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  Speaker 2: says the Lord. Let that be personal and breathtaking. Really is.
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  Speaker 2: It's life changing to let it be personal. God speaking
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  Speaker 2: to his child, the one who receives his son. That's
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  Speaker 2: what he said in John one twelve. Whoever receives the son,
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  Speaker 2: he gives power to become the children of God, the
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  Speaker 2: children of God through receiving the son, saying I'll always
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  Speaker 2: do you good. I will never stop doing you good.
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  Speaker 2: And when I do that good to you it will
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  Speaker 2: be because I like to. I want to. It makes
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  Speaker 2: me glad to do you good. It is my joy
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  Speaker 2: to do you good. Number five. One of those good
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  Speaker 2: things he will do for us is keep us. Hold
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  Speaker 2: on to us. My sheep hear my voice, and I
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  Speaker 2: know them, and they follow me, and I give them
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  Speaker 2: eternal life, and they'll never perish, and no one shall
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  Speaker 2: snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has
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  Speaker 2: given them to me, is greater than all, and no
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  Speaker 2: one is able to snatch them up out of my
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  Speaker 2: Father's hand. As John ten twenty seven to twenty nine,
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  Speaker 2: the older I get, the more precious is God's promise
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  Speaker 2: to keep me. I love the song. He will hold
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  Speaker 2: me fast. He will hold me fast, for my Savior
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  Speaker 2: loves me, so he will hold me fast. Isn't it
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  Speaker 2: amazing that the most lavish doxology in the Bible is
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  Speaker 2: a celebration of the truth that God holds his people fast.
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  Speaker 2: June one, twenty four. Now to him who is able
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  Speaker 2: to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless
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  Speaker 2: before the presence of His glory with great joy, to
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  Speaker 2: the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
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  Speaker 2: be glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time,
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  Speaker 2: now and forever. A min that is the greatest doxology,
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  Speaker 2: and all of it is a celebration of He keeps us,
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  Speaker 2: he holds onto us. He won't let us go. Once
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  Speaker 2: he has taken hold of us, and we're in his hand.
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  Speaker 2: He welcomes you to that. I mean he welcomes you,
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  Speaker 2: He invites you into that. Six. Another promise that becomes
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  Speaker 2: increasingly precious with age is first the Salonians five nine
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  Speaker 2: and ten. When I put my head on the pillow
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  Speaker 2: at night as an old man seventy nine, now I
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  Speaker 2: know that the probabilities that I might die in my
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  Speaker 2: sleep are increasing. So for some years now I have
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  Speaker 2: gone to sleep hundreds of nights with these memorized words
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  Speaker 2: in my mind. God has not destined you for wrath,
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  Speaker 2: John Piper. God has not destined you for wrath, but
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  Speaker 2: to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus, who died for you,
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  Speaker 2: so that whether you wake or sleep, you will live
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  Speaker 2: with Jesus. Wake or sleep in this context means live
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  Speaker 2: or die. So I am sleeping now, and if I
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  Speaker 2: die in my sleep, that will not be wrath. I
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  Speaker 2: will be with him. There is now no condemnation for
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  Speaker 2: those who are in Christ Jesus, nor will there ever
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  Speaker 2: be Elena. Finally, number seven, there will never be a
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  Speaker 2: moment from now to eternity when I do not have
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  Speaker 2: the greatest person in the universe as my friend, who
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  Speaker 2: never leaves me. Never will. No longer do I call
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  Speaker 2: you slave, but I have called you friend John fifteen fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: And behold, I am with you always to the end
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  Speaker 2: of the age Matthew twenty eight twenty. Not just to
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  Speaker 2: the end of the age, but always to the end
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  Speaker 2: of the age, Meaning there will never be a moment
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  Speaker 2: when my God, my Creator, my Savior, my friend will
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  Speaker 2: not be with me man, not one. Oh Elena, do
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  Speaker 2: you taste this? This is so good. He is so good.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus invites you. He sent me in this little podcast
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  Speaker 2: with this invitation from the Book of Relation to you.
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  Speaker 2: Let the one who is thirsty come, Let the one
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  Speaker 2: who desires take the water of life without price. It's free.
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  Speaker 1: So come on in the older I get. The more
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  Speaker 1: precious is God's promise to keep me amen. The seven
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  Speaker 1: promises that have kept John Piper from drifting. Think you,
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  Speaker 1: pastor John, for that from modeling the beauty of clinging
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  Speaker 1: to God's promises for a whole lifetime. It is truly
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  Speaker 1: awe inspiring. I appreciate it. This episode is a great
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  Speaker 1: model of how crucially important Bible texts operating in Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John's life. He has memorized texts like all those he
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  Speaker 1: mentioned here. He's not just spouting a list of texts
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  Speaker 1: that he googled online. I mean most, if not all,
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  Speaker 1: of these texts come to his mind because he's memorized
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  Speaker 1: them over the years and it's clung to them for
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  Speaker 1: all of his adult life in some way. And even
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  Speaker 1: went more on how he memorizes the Bible and what
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  Speaker 1: he chooses to memory and why. See several APJA episodes
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  Speaker 1: in the archive all index for you if you have
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  Speaker 1: the Ask Pestrore John book on pages of forty two
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  Speaker 1: to forty seven for more here. It's a discipline that's
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  Speaker 1: pretty crucial to his life. I pulled together several of
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  Speaker 1: the episodes on this topic of Bible memory and what
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  Speaker 1: he memorizes into a digest to show you in brief
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  Speaker 1: what he has said in the past. Well, speaking of
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  Speaker 1: New Covenant promises like Jeremiah thirty two forty do they
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  Speaker 1: mean we will never feel abandoned by God. It's a
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  Speaker 1: massive question and a reality we must understand to live
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  Speaker 1: out a realistic and genuine relationship with God. Why does
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  Speaker 1: God abandon us sometimes? That's next. I'm Tony Ranky, See
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  Speaker 1: you on Thursday.