John Piper’s Favorite Hymn

Ask Pastor John

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

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2016

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

And it’s a rather obscure German hymn you’ve probably never heard — until now.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was delighted to find this email question in the inbox because I don't think anyone has asked
0:04.4	it before. I may be wrong, maybe I missed it, but today's question comes from a podcast
0:09.4	listener named Sue. Hello Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. My question is what is your
0:16.0	favorite hymn and why is it your favorite? Well, I love to sing and especially with God's
0:27.4	people. On the Lord's day, gathered for worship in an atmosphere of serious joy and carried
0:34.0	along by the Holy Spirit with well expressed truth about the greatness and the beauty and excellence
0:40.8	of all that God is for us in Christ. I believe that when this comes from the heart of hundreds of
0:50.1	people or dozens of people or thousands of people when it comes from the heart of a united humble
0:58.8	holiness pursuing, justice pursuing, love pursuing people. God delights in this sound with all his heart.
1:10.4	During my 33 years of pastoring Bethlehem Baptist Church, many of the highest and the sweetest
1:21.6	moments of my life were spent standing at the front, pew, singing with all my heart as the
1:31.9	crescendo of the people's praise broke over my head from behind like a wave of joy and hope.
1:42.5	God ministered to me in those moments, ministered to my marriage in those moments,
1:50.2	ministered to my relationships more deeply at those times, I believe than any other time I'm aware of.
2:00.8	That's saying a lot and I'm saying it carefully. Things happened spiritually in my heart
2:09.8	that kept me in the ministry, kept me in marriage, kept me fathering, kept me in friendships.
2:18.5	Things happened spiritually in my heart concerning my relation to God and to my wife and other
2:25.1	people, the ripple effects of which I will never fully know until heaven, but they were profound
2:34.8	and on many Sundays they were deeply needed. So I do not take corporate singing of hymns in worship
2:45.4	to Christ lightly and I do not take the words of songs lightly or the suitableness of the
2:54.8	tunes to fit the words lightly or the blood earnestness and the vertical radicalness of the
3:02.3	atmosphere of the service as the people go hard after God or the spiritual demeanor of the leaders
	...

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