In the fall of 2012, Bethlehem Baptist Church hosted a very powerful and memorable conference

on disability.

It was titled The Works of God Conference, God's Good Design in Disability.

The entire event was God-centered and inspiring and faith-building.

I encourage you to watch it all.

But in that conference, there was one particular bit from John Piper's contribution that really

stood out to a podcast listener who sent us the clip to feature here on APJ.

And here in this section, Pastor John is applying the testimony of the Apostle Paul when Paul

says of his life that he was, quote, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

Second Corinthians 6, 10, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

It's a paradox and a miracle and a mystery, and it needs to be applied to our lives as

Pastor John does here.

I've got a concluding statement and five brief applications.

Number, the conclusion goes like this, so God is so sovereign over the disasters and

the disappointments of our lives that He is able to make every one of them serve our everlasting joy.

He is so sovereign over all the disasters, all the disappointments of our lives, that He is

able to take all of them and make all of them serve our everlasting joy.

This sovereign grace is the ground of your joy in sorrows, not after sorrows, but in the

sorrows of deep dis appointment.

So the Christian hedonist does not merely pursue joy after sorrow.

He pursues joy in sorrow, in disappointment.

So the watch word of your life then becomes sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

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