Audio Transcript
God is most glorified in us after we are most happy in him. It’s our slogan. We find it irresistible. Lots of you find it irresistible. Its good steadiness makes it straightforward to memorize. Its good rhythm paces itself off the tongue. And most significantly, it’s freighted with that means. In that motto, we summarize God’s plan for his creation, his goal for our lives, and the intention of Wanting God’s each day ministry labors across the globe. God’s glory and our pleasure in God aren’t two issues, however one stunning aim. And so we are saying it on repeat: God is most glorified in us after we are most happy in him.
And our motto turns 36 years outdated right this moment.
On this anniversary, I need to break into the APJ feed with a particular bonus episode, a brief one, with the latest discovery.
To do it, let me set the stage. Precisely 36 years in the past, Pastor John was the 42-year-old senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. And he was in Chicago in September of 1988 for a four-part seminar at Trinity Baptist Church in Wheaton, Illinois. The seminar was on Christian Hedonism. And he delivered the periods in 4 consecutive evenings at seven o’clock, Sunday to Wednesday. Added to his itinerary within the space, Pastor John additionally agreed to evangelise the Monday morning chapel message at Wheaton School, his alma mater. And that’s the place historical past was made.
Pastor John titled his Wheaton chapel message “God’s Memorial: Our Pleasure,” a celebration of Isaiah 55:12–13. The enjoyment of God’s individuals is a memorial to God. His individuals’s happiness is a monument to his personal honor. And it was right here, on the conclusion of his chapel message, that the motto made its first public look. Right here it’s:
Do you see what this suggests in regards to the character of God? It implies that his need for his individuals to be happy and his need for his identify to be glorified come collectively as one. The renown or the memorial that God makes for himself is your happiness. God is the form of God who’s pursuing his personal glory in your pleasure. The implication of that’s that when you’re most happy in God, he’s most glorified in you.1
Lovely. “When you find yourself most happy in God, he’s most glorified in you.” Now, it’s nonetheless slightly tough (and backward). However it’s public. Delivered for the primary time on this chapel message at Wheaton School on September 19, 1988 — 36 years in the past right this moment.
Okay, however how will we know this was the primary point out of the motto? That’s what I requested, too. So let’s examine this for a second.
First, only a month earlier, Piper had completed preaching a five-part sermon sequence by means of Isaiah 55 to his congregation in Minneapolis2 — a valuable chapter that invitations all thirsty souls to come back to the satisfying fountain of the residing God. He promised his church, “In the event you memorize Isaiah 55, it is going to change your life.” And so, he had his church employees and household memorizing the chapter all summer season. He concluded the summer season sequence with this identical textual content, Isaiah 55:12–13, which might be the textual content he attracts his Wheaton chapel message from a month later. However in his Bethlehem Baptist Church model of the sermon earlier in the summertime, Piper by no means mentioned something resembling the motto.3
“In the event you attempt to abandon the hunt for satisfaction and pleasure and happiness in God, you try towards the glory of God.”
Second, his monumental guide on Christian Hedonism, the guide Wanting God, had already been written and printed and was on bookstore cabinets 19 months previous to the Wheaton School chapel in September 1988. The truth is, by the point he arrived in Chicago, his four-part night sequence was already billed, based on the promotional flier, as that includes “Dr. John Piper, creator of the best-selling guide Wanting God.” However in addition to his new guide had been spreading, two issues are lacking from the primary version: Isaiah 55 and the motto.
Contemporary ideas on Christian Hedonism continued to construct for him as he labored to say issues higher and extra clearly and in methods simpler to recollect. So, again to Chicago. Recall he’s instructing at Trinity Baptist Church within the evenings. Monday night, the identical night of the Wheaton chapel message, right here’s Pastor John:
I feel I mentioned within the chapel this morning over at Wheaton that, uh, after we are most happy in God, he’s most glorified in us. That’s — that’s one of the vital crisp statements I can consider to seize Christian Hedonism.4
There it’s once more — a point out again to his Wheaton chapel that morning, however nonetheless not proof that the motto was coined there. Let’s transfer to the following night.
Now it’s Tuesday night, September 20, 1988. He mentions the road once more. However word his battle in drawing it from reminiscence.
And that led us to final night time’s message, which was then — the implication could be if we’d glorify God most, we should enjoyment of him most. And if I can keep in mind, the sentence that we used each within the Wheaton Chapel and final night time was, um, uh . . . I received’t get it excellent. Uh, in the event you . . . if you, if you, when you’re most happy in God, he’s most glorified in you. Sure, that’s the sentence. When you find yourself most happy in God, he’s most glorified in you. Due to this fact, in the event you attempt to abandon the hunt for satisfaction and pleasure and happiness in God, you try towards the glory of God. You place your self in opposition to his everlasting functions to exalt his personal identify.5
The motto isn’t simply recalled — not but. It’s recent. It’s not one thing he’s gotten used to — additional proof that it’s new to him.
Then comes a radio interview. Chris Fabry invited Pastor John to his Chicago-based present, OpenLine. This interview is performed on September 28, 1988, 9 days after the Wheaton chapel. And it’s a radio dialog about Christian Hedonism. In it, Fabry is attempting to place all of the items collectively — God’s glory and our pleasure. About fifteen minutes into the dialog, Fabry makes an attempt to restate Christian Hedonism in his personal phrases. The idea appears radical, he says.
As a result of what you’re saying is absolutely reworking our view of what God is out to do. In salvation, God then isn’t within the enterprise of saving us as a result of we should be saved or as a result of he desires us to be saved, however he’s doing it for his personal glory. Then, as we reply to him, we’re responding to that salvation message, not essentially solely as a result of we need to get away from hell or need to spend eternity with God. We do it for his glory.
That’s muddled, and understandably so. The glories of Christian Hedonism are laborious to understand at first, and folks battle to know this key level. It’s not merely about God being glorified, however about him being glorified by our pleasure in him. Right here is Pastor John’s rapid reply, an try and make Christian Hedonism clearer, utilizing one new sentence that he crafted precisely for a second like this one.
The genius of Christian Hedonism, and not less than what made it a revolutionizing factor for me, was to find that I’m by no means confronted with that different. That’s, I don’t assume . . . the Bible by no means poses me with the dilemma: God’s glory versus my happiness. Right here’s the best way I put it now — and I simply come across this final week as I used to be considering. The sentence I like to make use of to sum it up now’s this: “God is most glorified in me when I’m most happy in God.” Now, if that’s true, if God’s glory rises in proportion to my enjoyment of him, I can by no means play off his glory towards my delight. The extra I enjoyment of him, the extra glory he will get from me.6
“I simply come across this final week.” There it’s — affirmation of this latest discovery of 1 pithy assertion to seize the center of Christian Hedonism, cast to assist individuals get the purpose of Christian Hedonism. And a transparent callback to the Wheaton chapel message 9 days earlier. “When you find yourself most happy in God, he’s most glorified in you.”
In these 9 days, Pastor John has reversed the order. Up thus far, it was “When you find yourself most happy in God, he’s most glorified in you.” Now, “God is most glorified in me when I’m most happy in God.” It will get two extra tweaks in due time. The double point out of God turns into one, and the motto is made collective, from “God is most glorified in me when I am most happy in God” to its ultimate type right this moment: “God is most glorified in us when we are most happy in him.”
And there it’s: John Piper’s favourite motto, first delivered in his Wheaton School chapel message on September 19, 1988 — 36 years in the past right this moment.
