We better not make too many plans on the basis of things that do not reckon with the living Jesus of the book of Acts,

intruding himself again and again and again in this world, in your life, in your family, in your job, in your city, in your nation,

in your court system, and in your nations, he intrudes and he turns things around.

That's the way he is.

That's the meaning, I believe, of the kingdom of God.

Hearing what John Piper just said gives me a renewed sense of hope in my current circumstances,

and I hope it does that for you as well.

I'm Dan Kroover.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper confronts our tendency to think in fatalistic terms that our circumstances

or our lives won't ever change. And he does this by taking us to Acts 9, verses 23 to 43,

where we learn that Jesus is the Lord of Great Reversals. This message was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on October 13, 1991.

I think one of the most debilitating, one of the most devastating feelings in the human heart is fatalism.

And what I mean by that big word fatalism is that it'll never change.

I won't ever change.

She won't ever change.

My kids won't ever change.

My job won't ever change. This city won't ever change. School won't ever change, my job won't ever change, this city won't ever

change, school won't ever change, the world won't ever change, abortion won't ever change,

you know it, we're stuck with it, the powers are too deeply entrenched, we're just going to have to

gut it out, it ain't going to change. That's fatalism. And I think that's an attitude that Jesus doesn't like at all.

Because it's kind of practical atheism.

It doesn't reckon with the God of the Book of Acts who comes in and changes this thing.

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