John Piper Audio Sermons

There are few Christians who have influenced my life more than John Piper.  If you've ever heard him preach or read any of his writings, you might know what I mean.  The Lord speaks through him in a powerful and compelling way.

That's why I was very excited to hear about one of Desiring God's latest ministry projects.  They're working on putting a complete archive of John Piper's sermons online, which means that when this project is complete, you'll be able to go to the Desiring God website and download 26 years worth of John Piper's sermons for free.  This is on top of the full archive of sermon manuscripts that's already available.

This isn't a weekly podcast.  This isn't three months worth of streaming audio.  This isn't even 26 years worth of sermons available for purchase.  This is all of John Piper's sermons over the past 26 years, free to anyone in the world who has internet access.  Think about that for a second.

I think it's only appropriate for those of us who have benefited from John Piper's life and ministry to help Desiring God pass this blessing along to others.  If you can help financially, please do.  Even if you're a college student who can only spare $10, I think your $10 would be well-spent and would bear kingdom fruit.  Desiring God doesn't want your tithe (or whatever you normally give to your local church or other "churches, mission agencies, and organizations focusing on the poor and persecuted"), but please consider giving whatever you can beyond that.  From my interaction with Desiring God over the years, I'm fully confident that they spend every penny of their ministry money with wisdom, discretion, and kingdom values.  And they give away as many resources as they can, evidenced by their "Whatever-You-Can-Afford Policy" as well as their fairly loose copyright restrictions.  I don't know of another ministry that's as giving as Desiring God.  John Piper has led this ministry in practicing what he preaches, and he has my utmost respect because of that.

Sorry for the Mess

Often the smallest choices we make and the shortest sentences we throw around reveal the deepest and darkest corners of our hearts.  There have been a few times in the past couple weeks that I've been reminded of this in one particular way.

If you've ever had someone stop in for a surprise visit when some aspect of your living space wasn't as clean as you like it to be, you've probably found yourself saying something like, "Sorry for the mess…"  This could simply be a sign of apologetic hospitality, an others-centered way of saying, "I'm sorry that all this stuff is in your way and that you're having to trip all over it just to get to the bathroom."  Or it could expose the fact that you really want your friend to believe that normally your belongings are clean and organized, but lo and behold, he just happened to drop by on a day when they aren't.

In other words, you saying "Sorry for the mess" could be completely innocent, or it could be blatantly and frighteningly Pharisaical.

I decided a year or two ago that I was going to try not to mention to visitors the (obvious) fact that my desk wasn't clean or that the floor was cluttered or that the kitchen was dirty.  They can see it, and me mentioning it is usually just an attempt to make an excuse for it.  The facts are (1) we live in this house, so it's going to look used; (2) we minister in and out of this house, so the carpet's going to be stained and there are going to be crumbs in the couch covers and the trash can is going to be full all the time; (3) I don't keep my stuff as organized or as clean as I'd like to or should; and (4) if that's how I live in this house, what's wrong with you seeing it like it really is?

I wonder what parents are teaching their kids when they anxiously scramble around the house before company comes over, saying, "Hurry, kids, get this stuff off the floor — we have company coming over and we don't want them to see the house like this."  I wonder if kids ever think, "But Mom, this is how it looks all the time.  What's wrong with the outside world knowing that?"

I don't have anything against cleaning up the house before company comes over.  I think it's a nice thing to do, actually.  I also think that keeping your home and work-space reasonably clean and organized can be a sign of responsibility and will make you more efficient in life.  Our apartment isn't pristine, but it's not a pit.  I don't have a problem with the idea of keeping things neat and tidy.  In fact, I prefer to live life that way.  But I do have a problem with my deceitful heart when it tells me to act like some aspect of my life is one thing when I know full well that it's something different.

The stuff on my desk is pretty disheveled right now.  In fact, there's some stuff on the floor that really doesn't belong on the floor.  But if I do a brisk five-minute clean up and stack all the random papers together just so it looks nice and neat when you visit, I'm probably showing that I'm a pretty good hypocrite.

And I might just be doing the same thing on Sunday morning.

One Year Ago Today: The Tabernacle

It's sad when reality becomes cliche, but it really is true that time flies.  One year ago today I was spending my tenth day in Israel.  I had wanted to go to Israel for as long as I had the opportunity to, but finally went last summer.  I loved it.

For quite some time I've wanted to do a series of posts on Israel — my experience there, what I learned, and why you should go.  I'm not saying that I'm starting that series right now, because I'm not, but at least I can show you one deeply-imbedded memory from a year ago today:

It's a full-scale model of the tabernacle.  From left to right you can see the horned altar, the bronze laver, and the tent of meeting.  I can't even begin to describe to you what it's like to walk through a model like this and to see and experience all the things I saw and experienced in Israel.  I can only tell you that it makes your heart do something like this:

“What Happens Here, Stays Here”

A thought crossed my mind yesterday, and I thought I'd try to expand on it.

TV commercials these days are horrible, if you've noticed.  Actually, they're horrible even if no one notices, but that's not the point.  Well, it does relate, but it's not the main point.  Anyway… Because so many commercials are so worldly and so sensual and because so many of the values they portray are upside down and twisted, one of the only benefits I see to paying attention to them is examining the lies that undergird them.  I actually enjoy thinking hard about what a commercial is really about, what the company is trying to sell, what and who they're appealing to, what values they're assuming, what methods they're using to entice, what it says about our culture, and what God thinks of it all based on what He's revealed to us.  I imagine that many of you do the same thing.

There's a line of commercials that's been on for awhile, trying to attract people to Las Vegas.  I saw a new one today (new to me, at least).  But it's the tagline that caught my attention.  I've seen the tagline before, and it makes me mad every time.  But this time the Lord caused me to think about it a little bit more.  All of the commercials have to do with pleasure-seeking and sensuality and spontaneity and partying, and the motto at the end of every commercial is something like this:  "What happens here, stays here."

Depending on how you think and what you value, that can be a really attractive slogan.  Obviously it has to be attractive or it wouldn't be a successful theme for a line of commercials.  But why is it attractive, and what are the lies behind it (assuming that its falsehood is blatantly evident)?  There are a few.  Here are some ideas that I think this slogan is saying to the average TV-watcher (and this is an example of why you absolutely must have your mind in battle-mode if you watch TV):

1. Lie:  "What you do here won't impact other areas of your life."  What you do in Vegas stays in Vegas.  A little reckless gambling over the weekend never hurt anyone.  Emotional or fullscale adultery doesn't have to change how you treat your wife and kids when you get home.  A drunken binge or two won't affect your work ethic on Monday.  Reality:  Everything you do affects the other areas of your life.  You can't categorize it.  Thinking that you can be a drunk on the weekends and a responsible, white-collar worker during the week is undeniably hypocritical.  There's no way that committing any kind of adultery in Vegas could not destroy your wife and your kids, whether they know about it or not.  Get real, folks.  What happens in Vegas will creep into the other areas of your life like water looking for the water table.
2. Lie:  "What you do here won't impact anyone else's life."  Reality:  No man is an island.  What you do or don't do on any given day directly or indirectly affects tons of people.  If you're worldly, you're the bad company that corrupts good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33).  Even if committing adultery in Vegas did nothing to your own family (a far-fetched idea), you're at least destroying the person you're sinning with!  Someone's overboard gambling or foolhardy shotgun wedding or out-of-control partying can't not affect the people around them.
3. Lie:  "No one else will know what you did here."  Reality:  Yeah, and "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1).  Rather, "Where can I go from Your Spirit?  Or where can I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7).  No, the very Person who you don't want to know about this already knew about what you did before you did it.  Don't be a fool.  What happens in Vegas was known by God before time began, is offending and angering Him at this very moment, and will be held to your account on the last day.  God is unaware of what happens in Vegas like He was unaware of what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah.
4. Lie:  "What you do here will be fun and worthwhile."  Reality:  "If the dead are not raised [and only if the dead are not raised], let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1 Corinthians 15:32).  But the dead will be raised, and when they're raised, they'll give an account to their Creator and Judge.  In other words, it makes sense to live solely for your own fun and enjoyment if there's no afterlife.  If there's nothing after this life, live it up while you can.  But if there is something after this, and if the Someone who determines what that something will be is jaw-droppingly awesome and frightful, it might be a good idea to rethink how many decisions you make solely based on what's fun and worthwhile at the moment.
5. Lie:  "It's good to put yourself in position where you can fall into hedonistic spontaneities."  This is why a word like "happens" is used.  They're trying to say that things just "happen" in Vegas.  It's not deliberate, it's not planned, it's not structured.  You just fall into pleasurable situations, and there are so many pleasures to fall into that you should just come to Vegas and see what happens.  Reality:  First, no one just falls into sin.  Nothing just "happens."  Sin is a type of nature, but it's also a type of choice.  Second, willfully putting yourself into situations where fleshly fulfillment is not just possible but is actually likely is just another way of choosing to sin.  Living a sinward life (in the direction of sin and oriented towards the flesh) shows your true colors.

The "What happens here, stays here" slogan is perverted and deceitful.  A better tagline would be:  "What happens here could destroy your life.  Oh, and your next life, too.  Live carefully."

It's not inherently wrong to go to Las Vegas any more than it was inherently sinful to live in Corinth. Just make sure you're living the right motto.