Do not labor for the food that perishes

John Piper is preaching through the Gospel of John. I know I've refered you before, but if you want a consistent resource to feed your soul, sign up for his podcast on www.desiringgod.org

His latest sermon sounds like something we've talked about so many times at HHBC. It's from John 6:22-29 titled "Do not labor for the food that perishes."

Here's there summary:

Jesus isn't eager to be useful to our natural desires. He's too loving to be content with us seeing him as anything less than our supreme Treasure.

So the Gospel of John was written to make known the glory of Jesus, not the glory of his gifts. The story points again and again to the person of faith, not the product of religion.

Jesus tells us in John 6:27 not to labor for the bread that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life.

Laboring for the enduring food does not mean earning his favor. Rather, Jesus turns our inclination for doing upside down. This is what we're required to do: Believe in Jesus. It's a kind of doing that isn't doing. Those who eat the enduring food, Jesus himself who is the Bread of Life, don't work to earn him but believe to receive him.

But what does it mean not to labor for the food that perishes? Stop working altogether? Quit our jobs? No, but our jobs should be changed. When Jesus is our highest Treasure something about everything changes. And the effect isn't lazy, sloppy, gloomy labor, but zealous, excellent, joyful work that magnifies the beauty of our Bread and gladly meets the needs of others.

Download the sermon in mp3.

Read the sermon online.

Lessons from reading biography

Earlier this week I finished David McCullough's biography John Adams. If you want good history, excellent writing, and an amazingly intriguing story-line, you need to read this book. I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it... and that was a lot of minutes because the book is fairly large.

But upon finishing the last few pages on our front porch swing, I came in to Jessica and Corban in the living room. Jessica, knowing I had just finished, asked how it was. I said, "Well, everybody died in the end."

I love reading biographies! John G. Paton, Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, Adoniram Judson, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, and I think every biography of John Owen still in print.

But here's the thing: they all have the exact same ending. Everybody dies in the end! And in everyone of the biographies mentioned (Abraham Lincoln aside), it's always a nasty, unfortunate, humiliating, stretching-out-over-several-days affair.

John Adams led the cry of independence from an oppressive Britain. He hailed George Washington as the only reasonable commander of the Continental Armies. He single-handedly won over the delegates to adopt the Declaration of Independence (which he also had a massive hand in). He wrote the most enduring and tone-setting state constitution. He negotiated the first alliances on behalf of the new United States of America. He negotiated the end of the Revolutionary War. He served as the first ever Vice-President. He served as the second President, keeping us out of another war (with revolting France) which might have meant the swift death of our brand new country. He established the Navy. He's probably the main reason our government has checks and balances. And his eldest son served as the sixth president of the United States, like his father.

And for all of that, when he got old, his skin was droppy. He lost all his teeth. He was overweight. He walked with a cane. He lost his hair. His limbs lost all control. He couldn't see, write, walk, or ride. And then, he got sick and slowly died in a state of delirium.

On his death bed, he could have been any other human being in the world. And for all his accolades, he's almost entirely forgotten (for some strange reason, his Vice-President and successor Jefferson has received far more attention) in the hearts of Americans. All his glory came to naught.

So, all of that to say this: if you are living for your own glory, to establish your own name, to build your own little kingdom of one... STOP! You are soon to go the way of the world. It will not be pretty. In your death, you will die like everyone else. And what will come of your glory? What will come of your kingdom, and your name? It will be etched on a stone (with words you yourself chose), perhaps gawked at in mystery by future generations, but more than likely, completely ignored and forgotten about.

For God's sake, let's live for the name and fame of the only One who endures. The one who never dies. The one whose glory never meets the grave. His glory is forever. His name is forever. His kingdom is forever. Any kingdom-building or glory-giving done for him, no matter the scale, is permanent. In the words of John Piper, "Don't waste your life" living for yourself!

Amazing Host of Resources

Church family, as John Piper has just released a new book online, I think this is the appropriate time to point you to one of the most amazing resources available to you absolutely free on your computer (and yes, even you poor, poor dial-up folks will find this site accessible). Are you ready? I don't want you to forget to follow-up on this or to ignore it...

John Piper's ministry, Desiring God at www.desiringgod.org

Look at their resource section. He has umpteen awesome books online absolutely free. And I love these books! This is amazing! Want to read a biography. He's got them. Want to read on biblical manhood. Got that too. Missions? Yep! The Christian life, fasting, children's books, women, poetry, devotionals, theology? It's all there.

Furthermore, Piper has studied and preached more of the Bible than I ever hope to in my life of ministry. Twenty-nine years worth of sermons are free to read or listen to. Just download one of these if you're studying a passage or if you're having difficulty understanding some subject.

Okay, I guess I'm done. Did I make a strong enough case? Don't waste your life (a Piper book title...): go to www.desiringgod.org

Expecting a New Book

John Piper is at it again! He has turned one of his more recent sermon series on the New Birth into a book called Finally Alive (not yet released).

The following quotes from the forthcoming book demonstrates one of the many reasons I love Piper. He is clear, concise, and accurate:

Your act of believing and God's act of begetting are simultaneous. He does the begetting and you do the believing at the same instant. And—this is very important—his doing is the decisive cause of your doing. His begetting is the decisive cause of your believing. (102)

I'm headed to Minneapolis Sunday actually to a conference hosted by Piper and Desiring God so I hope to get a sneak peak of this book. It looks very promising. In the debates over Calvinism, I find that many Arminians have not wrestled with how exactly the new birth takes place.

The answer to the riddle

Our last post posed the following question:
What is deep enough for elephants to swim in and shallow enough for babes to wade in?

It was not very hard apparently because two out of two people I asked in person answered right away. The answer is: the Bible, the Word of God.

It's very easy as a church to get locked in to only swimming in three feet deep waters. The amazing thing is that this unique Book is simple enough that even at a mere three feet depth a person can hear and understand the significant truths of God.

Nevertheless the question is, if John Owen was right and the Word of God is deep enough for elephants to swim in, then we have to wonder why God inspired such depths in his Word in the first place if he never wanted us to venture into them? Does he really intend for us to spend our years, Sunday after Sunday, wading in the kiddie-pool of Scripture?

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. (Heb. 5:11-13)

Here the author of Hebrews is rebuking the local church because after quite some time, she was still unable to swim.

And here's the crazy thing: the way we progress deeper and deeper in God's Word is by wrestling with Scripture texts that are too difficult, too vast, too mind-blowing for us to comprehend presently. When those texts have done their work, we actually have an enlarged capacity to understand God's Word (or to swim in the metaphor). Now I'll have to argue for this some other time, but where does that leave the church content to feed only milk? It leaves them with 50, 60, 70 year old infants with permanent Scriptural arm-floaters. Let's not despise either end of the Scripture-pool!

John Piper - "A church that thinks deeply about God feels deeply about God." What would he say out the opposite?