What is obedience?

Obedience is doing what the Bible says.

And the Bible says,

serve the Lord with gladness.

Delight yourself in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again, I say rejoice.

You can't play obedience off against the pursuit of gladness. The Bible says be glad in the Lord.

Probably for many of us, there was a time when we thought duty and joy were at odds. You either did the right thing or you felt the right thing.

But Scripture won't let us divide them.

I'm Dan Kroover.

In this episode of Light and Truth,

John Piper shows that to delight in God is to actually obey him.

This message was originally delivered at the Bethlehem Baptist Youth Retreat in the winter of 2004.

Argument number one.

God commands us to be happy and to pursue our joy psalm 100 shout joyfully to the lord all the earth serve the lord with gladness okay everybody

knows you're supposed to serve jesus Do you know it's a sin,

that is, it is a disobedience of Psalm 100, verse 2, not to serve him with gladness.

It's sin. I mean, obedient. I remember one time a person I was leading a seminar with said,

I don't like the way you say it, Piper.

I don't think you should say pursue your joy.

I think you should say pursue obedience.

...