Does God Command Our Praise for His Sake or Ours?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pleasure in God is not complete unless it overflows in praise to God. And praise to God is not sincere unless it overflows from pleasure in God.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On Wednesday we were in Holland, today in Brazil, we're blessed with many friends in Brazil
0:09.4	and today's email comes from one of them, a man named Kawa, spelled C-A-U-A with a
0:14.1	Tilda on the last day. Kawa, Kawa lives in Rio de Janeiro. Hello, Pastor John, I have been
0:20.1	debating the following question in my head for a long while. Does God command our praise
0:24.3	because it glorifies him, or does he command our praise because he wants us to be happy? Does he
0:31.0	command our worship for himself, or for our good, or for both? Can you help me understand this, please?
0:37.4	Well, I will do my best because this is what I've been trying to do for more or less 50 years.
0:44.7	I think the answer to this question is just about the best news in all the world.
0:53.5	At least in my own experience to see the relationship between God's command for praise
0:59.6	and my experience of happiness was one of the most important discoveries that I ever
1:07.1	made in my life, so I hope I can bring some clarity to it. I don't think there was any
1:15.5	biblical text that my parents spoke to me or wrote to me after I left home more frequently than
1:23.0	first Corinthians 1031. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1:32.4	That command, that duty, was imprinted on my soul from as early as I can remember, and I am so
1:41.4	thankful that it was. It was a wonderful thing. Whether you're young, whether you're old,
1:47.8	to have a short, pithy summary of the purpose of human existence, what a gift to know why you exist,
1:57.1	to know why you are on this planet. Indeed, to know why there is anything at all in existence.
2:04.0	What a gift. What a privilege. And it became obvious over time that this wasn't simply my
2:11.2	duty to glorify God in everything I do, but this was God's design for his own action. All of it.
2:20.7	He does everything. He does everything he does to the glory of God. He predestines to the glory of God.
2:28.8	He creates to the glory of God. He guides history to the glory of God. He sends Jesus to live and
2:35.5	die for the glory of God. He sanctifies his church to the glory of God. Jesus is coming back
	...

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