I recently heard a John Piper sermon where he outlined the underlying belief that has transformed his life; “God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in him”. Then today I started to reread his book “Desiring God”, originally written in 1986, and first read by me in 1999. I didn’t remember anything from my first read, but right from the beginning this underlying belief was present, and clearly has been for the last 20 years, something very encouraging.

The belief is derived from a creed that says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever”. Piper took this and just changed it slightly, “The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever”.

This whole issue rings bells for me and speaks a lot about my own journey in God. For years I knew the truth of God but didn’t see it outworked in my life. I heard about freedom but I didn’t experience it. In the season I am going through right now I am considering joy, knowing about it, but wanting to have it as my experience. This is perhaps why I was led back to Piper’s book.

In the intoduction Piper sets out that we are hard wired for joy, the trouble being that we look for it in the wrong places and settle for cheap substitutes to the try joy that is available to us. He quotes CS Lewis;

We are half-hearted creatures, folling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Already I have felt the challenge on two areas; sin/temptation, and worship.

In regard to sin Piper writes, “I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term, than to gain a distaste for it, because of a superior satisfaction in God”. How often do we (obviously meaning I) try and battle sin purely by trying to purge it, resist it, fight it, abstain from it, only to fall at some point. The truth is that many sins feel good, or meet some need within us. If you read Christian, history men and women woudl inflict pain upon themselves in order to surpress these desires or needs. I remember one man who lived on a platform on top of a pole in order to get away from sexual tempation. The trouble he found was that his mind was still present up there on the platform. What we must do is find the greater joy, peace, love or whatever it may be that is found in God. If my delight is not in the Lord then I will look to find my delight in other things. My prayer for myself and for you is that we know the joy of being in and with the Lord, to taste of Him and His goodness to the point that all other things are bitter and sickening to us.

Now worship. Piper says; “Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us.” This struck me because it made me think about what we often try and achieve in times of corporate worship. We try and encourage people to “worship” God and as leaders we can often be discouraged if the church isn’t really ‘entering in’ or being free, or whatever you are used to calling it. But how can we expect people to do this if their delight, their adoration is not God. It got me thinking about football. I have supported Manchester Utd for years and really enjoy watching them. I watch them in a way that i don’t watch any other team. When they score or win it excites me in a way that no other team does. I can appreciate other teams, admire good play or a good goal, but I can’t get excited about them the way I do about my own team, I just can’t do it no matter how hard I try or want it to happen. Is our worship of God like this? How can we worship Him truly, with real adoration or excitement if there are other things we worship more. Jesus himself said that you cannot worship both God and money. The forst commandment is that we have no other gods before Him. So perhaps instead of just trying to get people to have a worship experience, or to sing louder, pray longer, or whatever it may be, perhaps we need to be getting people to fall in love with Jesus, to have Him as the source of their joy and hope. Worship to a large degree should be natural. We naturally worship the thing we love. I have tried not to support Manchester United, but in many respects I can’t. I can say I am not a supporter, but that doesn’t change the excitement I get through watching them. My prayer for myself and for you is that we learn to worship God is Spirit and in truth, our worship being an expression of our love and joy in Him, something that just can’t be held down, that has to be released.