Desiring God Messages by John Piper Audio

If a pastor doesn’t pursue his own joy in God, he compromises his ministry. To overflow with grace and love, the pastor’s heart must be centered on God himself.

All the benefits of the gospel come together in the highest good we can imagine: God brings us to joy in himself and keeps us forever safe in him.

The greatest gift of the gospel isn’t what God gives to us but who he is to us. Only when we receive him as our highest treasure will we truly know the beauty of all Jesus Christ has accomplished.

The greatest gift God can give us is himself. Without him, we have no cause for joy.

The best news in all the world is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the sweetest prize of that gospel is the gift of God himself.

Pastors are called to be ministers of grace who work with their people for their joy in the faith.

Love is the overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others; therefore, pursuing joy in God is not optional for the sake of genuine love.

Love between husband and wife flourishes when you put God first. Only when you love God most will your life sync up with what God intends.

God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the greatest act of love, and if we would truly reflect him, we must be satisfied in him above anything else.

Christians are precious to each other when they feel deeply what they have been saved from.

Some believe doctrine is stuffy at best, divisive at worst. Some prefer an undefinable personal relationship to revealed truths as found in the Bible. But in doing so they are cutting of the main channel to Christ-exalting joy.

What can we learn from how Paul sends his greetings?

Christian fellowship cuts our burdens in half and doubles our joy.

Why did Paul make another trip to Jerusalem when he expressly wanted to visit the saints in Rome?

When Jesus died, he didn’t just die before us—as an example to copy—but for us—as a sacrifice to trust in.

God will not lead you down a pointless path, but to a holy ambition that meets great need for the glory of Jesus.

In Paul's ministry, signs and wonders functioned to confirm the gospel. Should we be expecting the same miraculous confirmations of our witnessing today?

When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we feast spiritually by faith on all the promises of God bought by the blood of Jesus.

Neither your good works nor the righteousness that Christ works in you will ever justify you before God. Jesus himself is your righteousness.

God’s sustaining grace does not keep us from all trouble and pain, but is there through the dark night of suffering and will bring us all the way to glory.

Filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions does not mean we add to the merit of Christ’s atoning work, but that we hold out his suffering to the world through our sacrifical lives.

The most fundamental reason why a world full of suffering exists is that Christ suffered to display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God.

The world suffers the way it does because God planned redemption before the fall, subjected the world to futility, and ordained physical evil as a parable of moral evil.

The only way to ultimately persevere in faith, ministry, calling, and marriage is to be upheld by sovereign, sustaining grace.

Numerous biblical examples, along with the reality that God is for us in Christ, demonstrate that taking risks for the cause of Christ is right.