How Do I Pray from the Misery of My Sin?

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

🗓️ 16 November 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is no distress that puts you beyond the good news that God brings — not even the distress caused by your own sin.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the podcast. We have been doing this podcast for almost a decade now. And
0:09.0	over those 10 years, there have been some moving pastoral moments throughout those episodes.
0:15.6	I remember one from a long time ago. I looked it up. It's way back in episode 131, episode
0:25.4	131 and Oldie. Their Pastor John was talking about important Bible verses to memorize once
0:31.8	that he's found particularly useful in serving others. One such text was Psalm 130 verse 3. If
0:39.9	you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Their Pastor John testified
0:48.0	quote, How many times have I knelt down, put my arm on somebody who has just been broken
0:54.7	over some sin that they have committed? And I have been able to just pray over them this text.
1:02.3	Lord, if you would mark iniquities, who could stand? That's a moving picture of a word spoken
1:11.8	pastoral. And that image and that text comes to my mind when I think of today's sermon clip,
1:18.4	because there's a question over how do we approach God in the midst of our brokenness,
1:23.9	particularly in the brokenness we experience over our own sins? This very question gets answered
1:30.4	robustly in Nehemiah chapters 9 and 10. God's people are in distress, distress caused by their own
1:37.5	sins. They know it and they know they deserve the distress itself. So how do we approach God now?
1:45.6	Here's Pastor John to explain looking at Nehemiah chapter 9.
1:50.9	Starting with verse 6, to the end of verse 37, the Levites are praying. This chapter is a prayer.
2:00.7	They're praying to the end of verse 37 and they're crying out to you, O God, the word you in
2:10.0	reference to God occurs 30 times in these verses. What did they do? What did they say? How did they
2:20.0	deal with God in great distress? And that's what we want to know. How did they do that? Before we
2:33.2	ask further, let's get more specific about the distress, because this will clarify your situation,
2:41.9	because there's some of you right now who are perhaps arguing with yourself, if not with me,
2:52.3	what you're about to say is not going to apply to me, because you don't understand how I got where I am.
	...

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