Aligning Our Will with God's for True Discipleship
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If we stopped at verse 17, which is where we are right now, didn't go on into verse 18, we'd have a general truth. It'd be a true truth, but it would be without specifics, and the general truth would be something like this: you will discern that Jesus is a reliable spokesman from God when your will deeply and profoundly comes into sync with God's will. [00:01:20]
You will know Jesus, you will recognize him for who he is as a true spokesman for God when your will is brought into sync with God's will. When your willing is in sync with God's, your knowing will be in sync with truth. That's the general truth, but we're not going to stop at verse 17 because Jesus has much more help to give us here. [00:01:55]
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood or no unrighteousness would be more literal. Now remember when the crowds were impressed with Jesus' learning, he said to them in verse 16, my teaching is not mine but his who sent me. [00:02:47]
He deflected their amazement at his learning to God from self-exaltation. He deflects it from self-exaltation to God exaltation. That's what's going on. They're coming at him, you're amazing, and he says, well, whatever that is, my words are not mine, they're God's. So if you want to be amazed, be amazed at God. [00:03:21]
Verse 17 says, if your will is to do God's will, you can know whether Jesus is a true spokesman for God. Verse 18 says the way you can know if he's true is whether he's seeking the glory of God above all things. Okay, now that sets the stage for a lot of thinking about the relationship between those two verses. [00:04:21]
My will's got to get changed so I can know him, and the way I know him is that he loves the glory of God more than anything, and he's not into self-exaltation, he's into God exaltation. That's true, that's the mark of truth. So what's the relationship now between these two verses? [00:04:54]
Verse 18 describes specifically the deepest change that has to happen in my will in order to see Jesus as who he is. The mark of his truth is a passion for God exaltation, not self-exaltation. About that, that's verse 18. The mark of his truthfulness is a passion for God exaltation, not self-exaltation. [00:05:33]
Now for me to see that and be drawn to it and recognize it as the mark of truth, I've got to be changed. That's not the way I am by nature, nor you by nature. We love our own glory, we love the praise of man. That's the way we're wired. To be made much of feels better to us than anything in the world when we come into this world. [00:06:05]
Something really profound in the alteration of our wills has to happen for us to begin to enjoy making much of God more than we enjoy being made much of by people. Something really profound has to happen, and that's the change being called for in verse 17. Our wills have to come into sync with God's will. [00:06:33]
God's will for his son and for us is that we live for his glory, that we deflect to him, that we love to see him made much of, and we're not addicted any longer to this craving for human praise that governed us. That's a super powerful clip. The desire for self-praise shrouds Christ to us. [00:07:00]
Knowing Christ is not just about learning with the mind, but it depends on a holistic realignment of our entire being to the priorities of God. Man, that was good. That was from John Piper's sermon on February 14, 2011, titled "Willing God's Will as a Way of Knowing Christ's Word." [00:07:17]
I started listening to Desiring God. Well, I started listening to Piper's sermon when I was a young mom and seemed like I rarely was able to sit into a church service, so I started turning on his sermons and would listen while I nursed. And then years later, I realized that as God gave me more blessings, more children, I started to buy into the world's idea of the burden that they were. [00:09:11]
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You will know Jesus, you will recognize him for who he is as a true spokesman for God when your will is brought into sync with God's will. When your willing is in sync with God's, your knowing will be in sync with truth. That's the general truth, but we're not going to stop at verse 17 because Jesus has much more help to give us here. [00:01:55]
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood or no unrighteousness would be more literal. Now remember when the crowds were impressed with Jesus' learning, he said to them in verse 16, my teaching is not mine but his who sent me. [00:02:47]
He deflected their amazement at his learning to God from self-exaltation. He deflects it from self-exaltation to God exaltation. That's what's going on. They're coming at him, you're amazing, and he says, well, whatever that is, my words are not mine, they're God's. So if you want to be amazed, be amazed at God. [00:03:21]
Verse 17 says, if your will is to do God's will, you can know whether Jesus is a true spokesman for God. Verse 18 says the way you can know if he's true is whether he's seeking the glory of God above all things. Okay, now that sets the stage for a lot of thinking about the relationship between those two verses. [00:04:21]
My will's got to get changed so I can know him, and the way I know him is that he loves the glory of God more than anything, and he's not into self-exaltation, he's into God exaltation. That's true, that's the mark of truth. So what's the relationship now between these two verses? [00:04:54]
Verse 18 describes specifically the deepest change that has to happen in my will in order to see Jesus as who he is. The mark of his truth is a passion for God exaltation, not self-exaltation. About that, that's verse 18. The mark of his truthfulness is a passion for God exaltation, not self-exaltation. [00:05:33]
Now for me to see that and be drawn to it and recognize it as the mark of truth, I've got to be changed. That's not the way I am by nature, nor you by nature. We love our own glory, we love the praise of man. That's the way we're wired. To be made much of feels better to us than anything in the world when we come into this world. [00:06:05]
Something really profound in the alteration of our wills has to happen for us to begin to enjoy making much of God more than we enjoy being made much of by people. Something really profound has to happen, and that's the change being called for in verse 17. Our wills have to come into sync with God's will. [00:06:33]
God's will for his son and for us is that we live for his glory, that we deflect to him, that we love to see him made much of, and we're not addicted any longer to this craving for human praise that governed us. That's a super powerful clip. The desire for self-praise shrouds Christ to us. [00:07:00]
Knowing Christ is not just about learning with the mind, but it depends on a holistic realignment of our entire being to the priorities of God. Man, that was good. That was from John Piper's sermon on February 14, 2011, titled "Willing God's Will as a Way of Knowing Christ's Word." [00:07:17]
I started listening to Desiring God. Well, I started listening to Piper's sermon when I was a young mom and seemed like I rarely was able to sit into a church service, so I started turning on his sermons and would listen while I nursed. And then years later, I realized that as God gave me more blessings, more children, I started to buy into the world's idea of the burden that they were. [00:09:11]
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