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Matthew Stuckey here and I wanted to make a video on John Piper's teaching of Christian hedonism. And John Piper, this has been his bread and butter for a long time and he wrote the book Desiring God and he has Desiring God Ministries and what he basically teaches, he says he's a Christian hedonist, that God is most glorified when we take pleasure in him. That doesn't sound so bad on the outset because obviously there is some truth to that which we'll talk about here in a second but it is a very dangerous teaching. This is on my mind because I'm actually preaching against the false philosophy of hedonism this weekend and I'm kind of mainly looking at the aspect of going after the lust of the flesh like adultery, fornication, drinking, things such as that. There's different avenues to hedonism. For example, Buddhists try to remove suffering in order to end up having happiness and I've never really heard of Christian hedonism so much outside of John Piper but that's kind of outside the scope of my sermon so I'm gonna deal with it in this video. And so first off let me say that there is some truth to what John Piper's saying because the Bible actually says that we are rewarded not simply for the works that we do but also what we actually you know feel on the inside. It says in 1st Corinthians 4 verse 5 therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and of the hearts. So what the Bible says is you know the counsel of the heart it actually matters. It's not just that you do actions but you actually supposed to do it for the right reason and God is going to make that manifest. However I will say what's dangerous about John Piper's teaching is he basically throws this all onto feelings and he's negating actually the actions of reading the Bible, going soul winning, memorizing the Bible and he's saying it's all about just having a desire or a love for God in your heart but that's very subjective by the person and everybody feels like they love God in their heart but the proof of your love is actually your actions because if you love me keep my commandments and you always see in the Bible that you know love implies action for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and so in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 what the Bible says is and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So the emphasis is on the work that you do. Of course soul winning is a large part of that but also just you know serving God obeying his commandments reading the Bible memorizing the Bible laying down your life for other people and caring about them all those things are attached to this so God is glorified by our actions the Bible teaches this 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 and 20 what know you not that your body is the temple the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have God and you're not your own for your bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God. So the Bible says glorify God in your body abstain from wicked sins once again if you love me keep my commandments. John 15 verse 8 hearing is my father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you be my disciples. God is glorified when you bear fruit when you get people saved. Now John Piper is sitting here saying that it's all about just having a desire and a love for God and that's when God is glorified yet we just read a verse where he clearly says he's glorified by you winning souls to the Lord bearing much fruit and earlier he talked about us glorifying God in our bodies so us abstaining from sin obeying his commandments winning souls the Lord God is glorified by that so it is not just having a love for God on the inside but it's actually the actions that you do. Now I will say if you do have a love for God then actions are gonna end up coming forth from that and so there is some truth to what John Piper saying but it's dangerous because he's taken away from your actions and just onto feelings and people can feel like they love God and they can say hey it's all about loving God and I love him that's how he's glorified while they're not doing any actions. One of the examples that John Piper gives is this he says if I were to come to my wife and tell her honey I love you I'm taking you out for dinner and I'm doing this because I love you so much and there's nothing I'd rather do right now than just spend time with you and he says no wife will be upset if her husband says what makes me happy is just spending time with you but but here's the thing why that's a misleading statement okay because of the fact you know your wife is gonna be happy that you take her out for each she's take her out to eat she's gonna be happy with the actions now I do believe we ought to express our words to the people that we care about tell our our spouses tell our kids tell our parents that we love them but the actions I mean haven't you ever heard of actions speak louder than words now of course actions might be a manifestation of the heart but they might not be a manifestation of the heart but the bottom line is my wife's gonna be happy if I actually am doing things for her and taking her out to eat so it's not just this feeling it's actually actions it's not just saying telling your wife that you love her it's actually the actions associated with it he says this about triumphing over sin I know of no other way to triumph over sin long term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God what he says is you will never be able to fight against sin unless it's because of the fact you have a greater love for God okay now look this is not a true statement because of the fact let's just think of this logically if you go on a diet and you're trying to lose weight you say man the only way I'm gonna be successful in this diet is if I just love so much being on this diet that I'm just not gonna eat anything unhealthy well look you can just wait for that feeling your entire life but you know what it's probably never gonna come the actual secret is to remove all the junk food from your house and to put not put yourself in the position where you could actually eat the junk food if you're trying to get over drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes instead of waiting for the feeling what do you do not put yourself in position to actually drink alcohol or to smoke Jesus Christ when he was tempted by the devil what did he do he quoted the Word of God he quoted the book of Deuteronomy three separate occasions and so that's something you can do to fight against sin quoting the Word of God so don't put yourself in a position to do wrong anyone quote the Word of God when you're dealing or struggling with some sort of sin if you happen to be in a situation and so you think of Joseph in the Old Testament who just ran out of that house he didn't just say well you know I'm waiting for this feeling to love God so much he didn't give himself an opportunity to commit that sin and when you do give yourself an opportunity like David and Bathsheba that is what can end up happening so giving people this idea that it's all about just loving God in your heart and just have a satisfaction for God no actually you need to teach people to avoid those situations and in the bottom line is what really sums this up is that your feelings follow your actions your feelings follow your actions and what John Piper is saying is basically the opposite he's saying you wait for the feeling and you what then you're gonna have actions because of the feeling but what does the Word of God say Job 31 verse 7 if my step hath turned out of the way and mine heart walked after mine eyes he says mine heart can walk after mine eyes so you allow yourself to see something you have the wrong action and your feelings are going to follow that Ecclesiastes 2 verse 10 and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them I withheld not my heart for many joy so first Solomon says it enters into his eye and then it enters into his heart and then he actually did the actions not just looking but actually partaking in those and then it says you know Matthew 6 verse 21 for where your treasure is there will your heart be also so the Bible says where your treasure is there will your heart be also so whatever you know is your treasure whatever you invest your time and your energy and your money into the Bible says that your heart is actually gonna follow I want to express to you the hypocrisy in what John Piper's saying I'm gonna quote from John Piper here and then just show you how he's a complete hypocrite with some of the things he's saying he says God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves referring to financially no matter how thankfully what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized uneducated unmedicated and unfed millions the evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own so here John Piper's talking about how we ought to just give money because if you really love God you're gonna give money and so as much as he he preaches against the Pentecostals it sounds like he's doing the same sort of thing saying if you really love God you're just gonna give your money and says God has prospered them and by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture baptized by a doctrine of health wealth and prosperity they have bought bigger and more houses never newer cars fancier clothes better meet in all manner of trinkets and gadgets containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun they will object does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosperous people indeed God increases our yield so that by giving we can prove our yield is not our God God does not prosper a man's business so that he can move from a forward to a Cadillac God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached people can be reached with the gospel he prospers the business so that 12% of the world's population can move a step back from the precipice precipice of starvation and so John Piper says in this quote that when it comes to basically you know the proof that we don't really love God is because of the fact we're not giving money and this is really the root of it and the love of money is the root of all evil but here's the thing about this if you're gonna say that John Piper if you're gonna say that God is not happy when you're withholding money then why is it that you are a multi-millionaire why is it you you are worth more than 10 million dollars why is it that you have a nice house why is it that you have nice things now I personally am NOT against somebody having money I'm not against job I don't think job was a sinful person because he had a lot John Piper made a lot of money through his books and you know what that money belongs to him if I were to write books and become a multi-millionaire then that money would belong to me but here's the difference I'm not saying you've got to give all that money to the poor got to give all that money in order to help you know for the gospel and things such as that John Piper saying that people don't really love God because they're not giving everything God has prospered you financially but the reason why is in order that you can give for his work and things for him as opposed to for yourself that sounds really good except for the fact John Piper is a multi-millionaire John Piper is a hypocrite he's not actually living by that if he was actually living by that and leading a very simple and minimalist life then you know what I'd be like okay but the bottom line is John Piper is not living that simple life John Piper is a multi-millionaire he's not giving it all for the work of the Lord and so he is a complete hypocrite and he's teaching this doctrine of you need to desire God and the proof is through you giving money that's what he ties it down to and so this is a ploy for him to be able to get a lot of money that people donate and you know what people actually do now I want to read you John MacArthur's review of desiring God his of the review of John Piper's book desiring God desiring God is a paradigm shattering work that dramatically alters common perspectives on relating to God Piper reveals that there really is no need to choose between duty and delight in the Christian life in fact for the follower of Jesus the light is the duty as Christ is most magnified in his people when they are most satisfied in him constantly drawing on scripture to build his case Piper shows why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God no actually sometimes you have to decide on duty over desire because you know what I always tell people if you don't enjoy reading the Bible read it and it will cause you to enjoy it why your feelings follow your actions and look sometimes you have to do things out of duty not because you have a desire to do it because it's right to do it look if you make a vow or say you're going to do something you're expected to hold that you know even if you change your mind and it's going to hurt you and you don't want to do it you don't have the time you're expected to abide by that because of the fact you made a vow and you sometimes have to choose between duty and desire and the bottom line is if you're actually doing the works it's going to actually cause you to love God say how do you know that well this is what Jesus said if you know these things happy are ye if you do them now John chapter 13 in the context he's talking about laying down his life for other people and he's like if you know these things you know what the Word of God says about caring about other people more than yourself if you actually do this you're going to be happy and so the secret to a Christian actually being happy is actually lay down their life for other people and this is what God commands having the mind of Christ let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus and it talks about him laying down his life and this is right after it says to not look on the things of yourself but look on the things of others to care about other people more than yourself is what the Bible teaches and so look this idea of Christian hedonism and we should be pursuing pleasure and that's the ultimate thing and that's what's going to glorify God that's actually not the emphasis in the Bible the emphasis in the Bible is your works now of course people can be hypocritical and do works but not for the right reasons of course we understand that and God will one day make it manifest why people did their actions and if they did it just to be seen of men then they have their reward here on earth but the bottom line is your feelings follow your actions and what God emphasizes is doing the work keeping my commandments and I can say as a personal testimony that when I threw out my rock music when I throw out my worldly movies I didn't really want to do it but I thought I should do it I had to decide between you know duty and delight I still wanted to listen to the rock music but I did it out of duty and as time went by and I sung the Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs I found myself enjoying the godly music as opposed to the worldly sinful music that I used to listen to when I first started reading the Bible I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it that much because a lot of it went over my head I didn't understand a lot but I started reading the Bible and I started to enjoy it when I started going soul winning I was scared I was nervous but as you start going and you start learning how to do it you know what it really caused you to start enjoying it so look the bottom line is your feelings follow your actions and what John Piper's teaching here is this is all about the feeling that's a very dangerous teaching because of the fact there's many people that feel like they love God but their actions would speak otherwise and you know what the action your works are actually the proof and so trying to say well we as Christians it's Christian hedonism it's all about seeking you know pleasure in God you know it's it's about obeying God's commandments and doing what he said and you know the great thing as a Christian is this that if you actually obey and do what God says it will cause you to love God but to tell people that they should just ultimately just go for pleasure in God no actually you should be commanding people to obey God's commandments have a personal walk with God and the great thing is the feelings will follow the actions thank you and God bless