This is the sermon John Piper preached at Passion 2017. Sunday a friend told me to check it out. She said that her and her husband listened to it last week and that it left them dumbfounded – that it changed their whole perspective on sin and the essence of evil. So I heeded her sisterly admonishment to ‘check it out’ and started to listen to it while cooking dinner earlier tonight. After listening to the first twenty minutes of this message, I wanted my kids to hear it. So I hooked-up the movie projector and we listened to (watched) John Piper preach on the ultimate essence of evil.
The reason that I wanted my kids to hear this sermon is my desire that they understand that preferring anything else more than they prefer God is the ultimate essence of evil and the root of all sin. I wanted to remind them that the Christian life is not about a check-list of dos and don’ts, which is an easy thing to forget when raised in a Christian home. I wanted my kids to hear again that the Christian life is about seeing “…the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6), rejoicing over all that God is for us in Christ (Romans 5:11), “…being transformed into the same image from one degree to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18), and that pleasing God in righteous living and obedience results from a faith-filled love for God (Hebrews 11:6). Or, to put it another way, I wanted my kids to remember that loving God, wanting God, desiring God above all other things is at the heart of glorifying God, magnifying Christ, and serving Him in this world. I wanted them to lay-hold of the reality that Christ is everything, and that everything other than Christ is nothing without Him.
God has been very kind to give this generation preachers like John Piper. I am so glad that I took my friend’s advice and was able to share this sermon with my kids. It blessed us all. So if you have 45 minutes and you need to be reminded of some of these truths too – check it out.
How can I escape my fear of man? Well, Witherspoon said, “It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.” So I started checking out resources on the fear of God- and I came across this 2 minute sermon clip from John Piper. In it, he explains what the fear of God is for the Christian, and what the role of fearing God is in the Christian life. Well worth the 120 seconds it took me to watch.
Saw this movie- Ragamuffin– recently. It is about the life of Rich Mullins. I loved it. Now, I am not a huge movie person- but I love music. So a movie about Rich Mullins, one of my favorite Christian artists, entertained me- and it moved me. I never knew how he suffered emotionally and relationally (two forms of suffering I can honestly identify with), and I never knew what grace was his in Christ.
After watching the movie- I began to think that, perhaps, the Lord had used Rich’s music to start to prepare my soul for more of a reformed understanding of the sovereignty of God. I have been listening to him since I was 12 years old, even before I knew the Lord. It is a deep movie- it has “thematic elements”- but I liked it. I’ve posted the trailer below. As for the song- it is one of my favorite Rich Mullins pieces: The Love of God.
Totally where I am at today. Found the hymn by a “providential-accident” (that is an intentional oxymoron). I haven’t heard this hymn for a while, but I needed to hear it today. I needed to be reminded that coming to grips with the wickedness and treachery of my own heart (at deeper and deeper levels) is a necessary prerequisite to true holiness. I also needed to be reminded that when I do become painfully aware of my sin- it is a blessed gift of grace that shouldn’t cause me to despair of any hope for true holiness. But, instead, that awareness is intended by God to drive me to Him, and seek Him for more of the gracious blood-bought sanctifying work of the Lord in my life.
If you are feeling the “hidden evils of thine heart” or as though the Lord has allowed “the angry pow’rs of hell” to “assault thine soul in every part,” then perhaps this hymn is totally where your at too.
Happy Saturday.
John Newton wrote this hymn. The following paragraph gives the nut-shell testimony of his conversion experience. You can read the entire biographical sketch by following the link at the bottom of this post. I have also included the words to the hymn on the bottom of the page.
Newton, John, who was born in London, July 24, 1725, and died there Dec. 21, 1807, occupied an unique position among the founders of the Evangelical School, due as much to the romance of his young life and the striking history of his conversion, as to his force of character. His mother, a pious Dissenter, stored his childish mind with Scripture, but died when he was seven years old. At the age of eleven, after two years’ schooling, during which he learned the rudiments of Latin, he went to sea with his father. His life at sea teems with wonderful escapes, vivid dreams, and sailor recklessness. He grew into an abandoned and godless sailor. The religious fits of his boyhood changed into settled infidelity, through the study of Shaftesbury and the instruction of one of his comrades. Disappointing repeatedly the plans of his father, he was flogged as a deserter from the navy, and for fifteen months lived, half-starved and ill-treated, in abject degradation under a slave-dealer in Africa. The one restraining influence of his life was his faithful love for his future wife, Mary Catlett, formed when he was seventeen, and she only in her fourteenth year. A chance reading of Thomas à Kempis sowed the seed of his conversion; which quickened under the awful contemplations of a night spent in steering a water-logged vessel in the face of apparent death (1748). He was then twenty-three. The six following years, during which he commanded a slave ship, matured his Christian belief. Nine years more, spent chiefly at Liverpool, in intercourse with Whitefield, Wesley, and Nonconformists, in the study of Hebrew and Greek, in exercises of devotion and occasional preaching among the Dissenters, elapsed before his ordination to the curacy of Olney, Bucks (1764).
Dr. Jason Meyer just preached this sermon on August 16th. After listening to it, I thought I have to post this sermon to this blog. It just seems to encompass so many of the ideals of Boasting in Weakness. For example, in this sermon he addresses experiencing providentially ordained afflictions, receiving the comforting (strengthening) grace of God, and, in so doing, bringing glory to God through our weaknesses and our trials. Furthermore, Pastor Meyer totally gets the whole appropriating the cross of Christ for life concept. He makes the point that the Apostle Paul intentionally communicates a paradigm for the Christian life in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (which is the defining principle in my understanding of the Christian life; and therefore, it is my personal paradigm for life).
This sermon is a great word, totally edifying, totally the perfect message for someone struggling under the heavy weight of afflictions and in need of an encouraging word from the Lord.
Wretched: Matt Chandler: Maybe this is why you are depressed.
I never thought about it – quite like this before – but, it is sooooo true: bad theology is really depressing. After all, anything that is soul-destroying is also heart-breaking. Todd Friel with his usual insightful candor, really powerful preaching from Matt Chandler, and a diagnostic for any Christian struggling with depression- this is a sound word about one of the many problems that result in the life of a Christian that holds to bad doctrine (like the prosperity gospel), or listens to false teachers. Well worth the 5 minutes and 38 seconds needed to watch. .
WARNING: Some of the images on this clip are graphic and not recommended for the eyes of young children or weak stomached Arminian women.
Still mentally camped out on the John 15:1-16 passage- I am like totally being pruned by the Vine-Dresser- lately. You know how it goes: a little snip here (mortification of my sin), a little water there (lots of prayerful tears), a little fertilizer for the soul (dealing with lots of difficult people), some sunshine (you know- the good times- the joy that cometh in the morning); and then the Lord, like, totally added “miracle grow” to my soul when He providentially worked the details of my life out so that I could hear this great sermon.
This message just blessed me… because it totally rocks- there is no better way for me to explain. If you have an hour and 11 minutes of laundry, dishes, or other mindless work to do- this message will turn your mundane chores into an everlasting blessing. Highly recommended listening for all elect.
Glorifying God by Bearing Fruit in Union with Christ: Dr. John Piper
I was praying and asking God for an encouraging, edifying, God-ward, post for today. This came to mind. I saw it for the first time a couple years ago, (I think, the days, months, and years all run together lately); anyways, this clip was like drinking a glass of cold water on a long hot day for me- especially as I saw it in light of raising five children and wanting to ingrain the right perspective in their souls.
The world defines beauty in terms of sensuality; worth in terms of metal trinkets and copper coins. But, this 3 minute and 7 second clip with Blair Linne calls us all to an about face; so that we can see the “One” Who possesses real beauty and has real Worth. I think that this is refreshingly beautiful.
First Timothy 4:1-2 says, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared…” This video clip goes 26 seconds past my five minute ADD affected attention span (its 5 minutes and 26 seconds long). But, with Paul Washer (true brother to all who love Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love) preaching, I did not even notice. This is a wake up call to American Christians to be aware of those brutal hell bound, life sucking, God hating, self-loving false teachers. Warning: you must be okay with passionate preaching to watch this video.
