And the single sermon that I have returned to more than any other is John Piper’s Thankful for the Love of God! Why? I first listened to this sermon when I was a freshman, 6 ½ years ago.  Since that time I have listened to it dozens upon dozens of times — even a dozen times in one month on occasion.

The reason I return to this sermon is because it’s one of the clearest places I know of to hear something I often need to be reminded:  God’s love is greater than you ever dreamed.  And if you like being loved by God because being loved makes you feel good, you have no idea how much God loves you, because he loves you way more than that.  At great cost to himself, he has given you what you need most — himself.

God’s love is his doing whatever needs to be done, at whatever cost, so that we will see and be satisfied with the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Let me say it again. The love of God is his doing whatever needs to be done, at whatever cost to himself or to us, so that we will see and be satisfied by the love of God in Christ forever and ever (Piper).

I really needed to listen to it again tonight.

Thank you, Dad, for loving me enough not to give me what I think will make me happy, but what will make me eternally happy.  You are true beauty and grace.  I love you.

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This year I was with C. J. and a group of friends watching the Super Bowl. I don’t think I saw more than two commercials the whole time. C. J. had the remote, and as soon as commercials came on he’d switch to C-SPAN, possibly the safest channel available. Why does he do it? Doesn’t he know how entertaining and interesting the commercials during the Super Bowl can be? Yes, and he also knows how often they use sex to sell their products. He knows that nothing he might miss is worth exposing himself to lustful images. . . .

At times when I’ve traveled and stayed at hotels I have sinned against God by mindlessly surfing through the channels.  I don’t necessarily stop and view something sinful, but I surf by it knowing there’s a good chance something will flash before my eyes.  God has helped me to see my own sinful desire in those moments.  Even though I’m just flipping by, this is an expression of lust.  Because of my poor track record, I’ve made it my habit not to even turn the TV on in a hotel (Josh Harris, Sex is Not the Problem, Lust Is).

Her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little (Luke 7:47).

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This track is from Relevant Revolution.

I could not attribute any rational meaning to a single act, let alone to my whole life. I simply felt astonished that I had failed to realize this from the beginning. It has all been common knowledge for such a long time. Today or tomorrow sickness and death will come (and they had already arrived) to those dear to me, and to myself, and nothing will remain other than the stench and the worms. Sooner or later my deeds, whatever they may have been, will be forgotten and will no longer exist. What is all the fuss about then? How can a person carry on living and fail to perceive this? That is what is so astonishing! It is only possible to go on living while you are intoxicated with life; once sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere trick, and a stupid trick! That is exactly what it is: there is nothing either witty or amusing, it is only cruel and stupid (Tolstoy).

Tim Keller, A Reason for Living:
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You might decide simply to have as good a time as possible. The universe is a universe of nonsense, but since you are here, grab what you can. Unfortunately, however, there is, on these terms, so very little left to grab — only the coarsest sensual pleasures. You can’t except in the lowest animal sense, be in love with a girl if you know (and keep on remembering) that all the beauties both of her person and of her character are a momentary and accidental pattern produced by the collision of atoms, and that your own response to them is only a sort of psychic phosphorescence arising from the behaviour of your genes. You can’t go on getting any very serious pleasure from music if you know and remember that its air of significance is pure illusion, that you like it only because your nervous system is irrationally conditioned to like it. You may still, in the lowest sense, have a “good time”; but just in so far as it becomes very good, just in so far as it ever threatens to push you on from cold sensuality into real warmth and enthusiasm and joy, so afar you will be forced to feel the hopeless disharmony between your own emotions and the universe in which you really live (CS Lewis).

I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24).

About 4 years ago, I picked up a copy of Augustine’s City of God.  Shortly thereafter I began reading the Confessions.  In each of these books I saw for the first time something I had never seen before.  I saw a man desperately, unashamedly in love with God, and he made no attempts to downplay it out of a fear of looking silly or weak.  Augustine was a lover of God, who has only been rivaled in his lavish, penned expression of love for God by King David.

As I read Augustine’s account of his own depraved and sinful life — a story that was routinely interrupted by affectionate praise for the Savior he loved — I was amazed.  I’d never seen anything like it.  His language was so full and overflowing with emotion that it made my own heart “throb with a bewildering passion.”

And at the center of it was one sentence that changed my life:

He loves You too little who loves anything together with You which he loves not for Your sake.

Anything, Augustine? I asked.  Anything, he replied through the pages he’d left me.

I loved a lot of things and a lot of people, and most of them I didn’t love for God’s sake.  Was it for God’s glory that I watched TV, listened to music, or posted on my blog?  Was it with God in mind that I spoke when around my friends?  Was it love for God motivating my love for my family?  Was it for God’s sake that I ate and drank, slept and got out of bed, put on my clothes and breathed?

It wasn’t.  And I was terrified.  More than that, I saw something Augustine had that I wanted.  God became more glorious to me than he had ever been before.  I wanted to know this great God who brought Augustine to his knees before him, tearing his hair and beating his breast.  I found myself on my own knees, mourning over my sin and weeping in joy.  My experience was like that of Augustine 16 centuries earlier:

I began to search for a means of gaining the strength I needed to enjoy You, but I could not find this means until I embraced the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ.

I thank God for Augustine, for his providence in bringing him to me, and for the sentence that changed my life.

If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings (Adoniram Judson).

From How Few There Are Who Die So Hard: The Cost of Bringing Christ to Burma.

But merely talking about Christ and boasting in Christ are different things. It is far too easy for us to cover up our insecurities by talking about Christ without boasting in him. We discuss things in very theoretical, theological ways. We make generalizations and speak in broad terms rather than speaking about our own needs. We choose safe, stale language to describe ourselves rather than heart-felt language which opens us up to mockery or criticism. We maintain a veneer of control over our lives despite the fact that our hearts are full of turmoil. We fail to talk about someone we love and instead talk about facts concerning him.

The problem is quite often not what we say but how we say it. We are masters at dodging the guilt and shame we’re due. And we do it because we are more afraid of the sinners we speak to than we are in love with the One we speak about.

But Paul did something entirely different. He boasted in his weaknesses in order to glorify Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). When we aren’t most vulnerable, Christ isn’t most glorified because he died for us while we were yet weak. Be vulnerable for Christ’s sake.

1. Rejoice in loss.

Loss teaches us about death. When your flesh rises up pridefully to anger or embarrassment, loss can be, for you, a parable of death as you use it to put the flesh to death. When you lose, glorify God by killing your pride and rejoicing with your opponents in a shared love for God’s goodness through the game.

2. Win with grace.

Winning, likewise, is a chance to die. The flesh desires to boast in its accomplishments. When you win gracefully, you die, and God is shown to be your joy, not bragging rights.

3. Boast in weaknesses.

When you make mistakes, you die by taking it as an opportunity to boast in your weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). Only God is capable of executing anything perfectly.  Your mistakes bear witness to the full range of God’s perfections.

4. Be amazed at God’s goodness.

God said, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). We’re sinners, so what does God do? He gives us volleyball. Be amazed at God’s goodness! We deserve the sun to fall on us and boil the oceans, but he puts it in the sky and sets paradise in front of us. When you realize the only reason the sun rose to warm the sand is due to God’s goodness and his steadfast love, you die to your old self which would have you think God owes you his sun.  People who receive volleyball with thankfulness magnify God’s goodness (1 Timothy 4:4) which is designed to bring the world to repentance (Romans 2:4).

5. Use valuable opportunities to mortify sin.

Games present opportunities to mortify sin that we aren’t always given so plainly in our everyday lives. You can mortify temper, which causes you to get frustrated when the game doesn’t go your way, gloating, which can rise in the flesh when you do well, a belittling attitude, which makes you want to speak harshly to a stumbling teammate, and pride, which wants to take credit for the athletic ability God has given you.  Don’t waste your opportunity to put these sins to death.

6. Recognize your smallness.

If you think the world is going to fall apart because you take a break to play volleyball, you don’t really realize who is in control.  At this moment, the sun is hurtling through the galaxy at nearly 500,000 miles per hour around a black hole at the center of the Milky Way.  Is it your strength that holds it in orbit?  You don’t even have the power to turn one hair white or black (Matthew 5:36). God serves us and doesn’t need us to carry out his purpose in the world (Acts 17:24-25; Luke 10:41-42). One way he serves us is by giving us volleyball to enjoy, for the sake of his glory.

7. Remember God’s purpose.

God’s purpose in the world is not primarily to convert everyone to Christianity. If that was his primary purpose, he could accomplish it. Nor is his purpose primarily to purify and disciple his church. These are both secondary purposes, which God works mightily in, but they both serve his primary purpose of glorifying himself. And one way God glorifies himself is by giving us volleyball to receive with thanks as a gift bought with the blood of the Lamb.

8. Stand in awe of others’ talents.

God is glorified when we turn away from ourselves and take notice of our opponents’ talents. Praise your opponents and teammates for their talent, and God, who gave them their talents, will shine brightly. Moreover, God has given professionals and Olympic players far superior talent for us to behold – small glories in which we can see glimmers of the glory of God.

9. Stay in shape.

Volleyball can be used as a means of exercise, and exercise keeps our bodies in the condition God designed for them. It enables us to do more in our pursuit to glorify him. When you are more mobile, you can more easily perform the tasks God has for you.  In addition, exercise helps stay off depression and mental illness. Finally, when we sweat with thankful hearts, we sweat to the glory of God.

10. Keep your body under submission.

When your body wants to give up in the middle of a game, you die by overcoming fatigue. When you deny yourself an unnecessary rest, you join Jesus who denied himself the comfort of heaven for you. This denial is not a stoic denial for its own sake, but it teaches us of our frailty, it trains us to bear difficulties, and it prepares us for war.

11. Make a ministry out of it.

Volleyball is a great way to form relationships, which can give you witnessing and discipleship opportunities.  If you die while playing volleyball, you display the glory of Christ to others, who see your actions and give glory to God (Matthew 5:16).

12. Look to the greater joy Jesus offers.

Recreation is good because the God who created it is good.  He doesn’t give bad gifts; everything he created is good (1 Timothy 4:4).  So Volleyball teaches us about the good God who created it.   He gives us joys here on earth to bear witness to the greater joy that is to come when we at last see his beautiful face.   When we realize this we die, and just as mightily we live.   The joy of volleyball is a parable – a small taste – of the joy Jesus offers.

Further Reading

Mahaney, C. J. “Don’t Waste Your Sports.” 31 Aug 2008. http://www.covlife.org/resources/2671709-Dont_Waste_Your_Sports

Piper, John. “How do you glorify God through exercise?” 31 March 2008. http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ByTopic/13/2695/

—. “How to Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God.” 15 September 1986. http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/1986/1489/

—. “Softball, Sex and Augustus Strong.” 4 May 1982. http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/1982/3299/

We tend to have permanently casual relationships that never grow into real intimacy.  There are things we know about each other, but they fool us into thinking that we know the human beings who live within the borders of those details.  So we fail to pursue them with good questions.  This sets the stage for all kinds of misunderstandings.  Our effectiveness as ambassadors is blunted because we don’t know others well enough to know where change is needed or where God is actively at work.

Think about it.  Most of the conversations you had today were mundane and rather self-protective.  We spend most of our time talking about things that are of little personal consequence — the weather, politics, sports, and entertainment.  There is nothing wrong with this except that it allows us to hide who we really are. . . . We are all skilled at newsy but personally protective conversations (Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands 163).