The glory of God hangs on not only being seen, but being treasured and cherished and loved and enjoyed

so that you say I count everything is lost for the surpassing value of seeing this and having this.

This is my treasure. This is my satisfaction. If you don't pursue that, you don't worship.

If that's true, it has huge implications for the kind of communication that gets delivered on Sunday morning.

It's one thing to say we're worshiping God on a Sunday morning.

It's another thing to treasure him, to actually feel in our hearts that he's more valuable than anything else.

I'm Dan Kroover. In this episode of Light and Truth,

John Piper presses into the connection between true worship and the kind of preaching

that awakens joy in God.

This message was originally delivered in Birmingham, Alabama,

at the William E. Conger Lectures on February 24, 1998.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Timothy, Chapter 3.

And I'm going to read verses 16 into chapter 4 verse 5.

And while you're looking, I'll tell you that my aim this morning is to ask the question

and try to answer it, why preaching is so prominent

in our worship services. Why in this service, which is a worship service in particular,

does my part assume 30 or 35 minutes worth? And that's fairly typical around the Protestant world.

Why is that? Can you give an account for that?

So let's read beginning at 2 Timothy 316, and you all know that these chapter divisions are later, and therefore we'll move right on in and go through probably verse 5.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate,

equipped for every good work.

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead,

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