Tag Archive for 'John Piper'

Piper On Perseverance

Perseverance seems to be a bit of a buzzword in my life right now.  Deep down in my soul is an “echo” of the word as I struggle to meet the daily demands of life.

Even at church, the topic mysteriously landed on my lap.  I occasionally get asked to share a message and we’ve been going through the Sermon On The Mount found in Mathew 5,6 & 7. Lo and behold, I got asked to share on Mat 7:7-11 - which again talks about perseverance.  The audio of my message can be found below.

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And then again tonight as I was checking out some video’s on YouTube, I come across this little beauty by John Piper.  Too often, we choose the path of least resistance in our lives - and this also creeps into our faith.  As a result, faith gets shipwrecked and the hope in God fades away.

When the going gets tough, the tough should get going to God - He is the One that can sustain and deliver us from any obstacle life throws at us.  And if He doesn’t want us to survive that obstacle, He will be there side by side - accompanying us all the way.

I can almost imagine Him looking at the tears streaming down our faces as we face our obstacles and saying to Himself, “in My Kingdom, these tears I will personally wipe away,” - just learn to trust Me.

So in my soul, I’m beginning to thank God for the current hard times because He is teaching me an attribute worth it’s weight in gold - perseverance.  Check out Piper’s video below and I hope you are encouraged by it.

Being Salty & Not Wealthy

Starting to really resonate with Piper more and more these days. Just watched another one of his video’s on the “prosperity gospel” and how it contradicts the call for us to be “salty” instead.

Have a watch and let me know what you think…

John Piper Resources

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In his classic style, John Piper has made available a bunch of resources for those wanting to dig deeper into their faith. One of my favourite teachers of the Word and a guy totally sold out to teaching people about the Glory of our Father, John Piper has just released a bunch of materials available for listening and free download.

In a world where everyone is charging for everything, many Christian teachers are also jumping on this band wagon and having the audacity to actually charge people to download sermons!

I see this as totally wrong. Imagine Jesus setting up tolls on the Mount before delivering His classic Sermon on The Mount teaching. Imagine Paul setting a seal on his letters he wrote from prison and before they were read in Churches, a “love offering” had to be made.

Give me a break! Many try to justify charging people for MP3 downloads saying that web hosting and bandwidth is expensive. As a lay webmaster of my church website, I can tell you that after thousands of downloads of our sermons in the last couple of months, it hasn’t cost me a cent.

Sure, we are a small church and our downloads aren’t as big as some churches. But with bigger churches, come larger offerings - and this should cover the costs of getting the Word out there.

I have a “holy discontent” to use the words of Bill Hybels when it comes to charging people for sermons. One of my favourite teachers was Chuck Missler. A guy gifted in his understanding and a brilliant communicator of the Word - albeit a little repetitive. I don’t listen to him anymore simply because he charges for his sermons.

Piper, on the other hand, is different. Check out his website, desiringgod.org and you will be amazed at the amount of resources he has made freely available. And it’s not JUST resources - it’s quality resources. Below is a taste of his latest offerings. Every two years John Piper completes a rotation of weekend seminars on different aspects of Christian doctrine and practice. Although much of it was spoken years ago, these have now been made available online.

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Prosperity Gospel and John Piper

If you are a reader of my blog, you would know that I despise the so called “prosperity gospel.” This fake and dirty gospel is pushed into our hearts and minds by some of the biggest preachers out there. Preachers that fill stadiums and whip crowds into a frenzy as they bellow out, “God is going to do something in your life” or “the windows of heaven will open so wide into your life”, etc.

For a long time, I have hated this gospel as it satisfies the carnal longing inside me and the carnal longing inside you. This gospel doesn’t promote a denying of my self. This gospel promotes a magnification of self.

This gospel encourages us to give and tithe above and beyond what is sometimes possible so that God, in return, would bless us beyond our ability to contain it. Instead of giving to honour God, this gospel encourages to give and hand God an “I owe you” slip in which we sub-consciously demand payback from God.

I have come across this YouTube clip from John Piper many times and now have decided to post it here as a reminder to me about the ugliness of this so called gospel.

YouTube - John Piper on the prosperity gospel

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