Messages by Desiring God

Messages by Desiring God episodes:

• 04.14.2024

  The Safest Soul in All the World: Rejoicing in the Risen Christ

  David Mathis | The safest soul in all the universe is the one that rejoices in the risen Christ. God will never destroy those who delight in his Son.

  
• 04.07.2024

  Where Does Technology Come From? 2024 Scudder Lecture

  Tony Reinke | How should Christians orient toward technology? Should we ignore it, embrace it, be suspicious of it, or shun it altogether?

  
• 03.31.2024

  Before Division Comes: A Playbook for Pastoral Unity

  David Mathis | Even among pastor-elder teams, conflict comes. Disagreements are inevitable. How then might we navigate conflict with a constant eye toward God-honoring unity?

  
• 03.28.2024

  The Word of God Kept Him: Funeral Message for Sidney Boyd (1948–2023)

  Why do God’s people wake up as believers day after day until they die? Because the same word that made us goes on keeping us to the end.

  
• 03.20.2024

  Live Like Death Is Gain

  Marshall Segal | How can we make Jesus look good in life and in death? By enjoying him as better than anything life could ever give — and better than anything death could ever take.

  
• 03.17.2024

  The Thickest Joy on Earth: Why We Love Philippians

  David Mathis | Why do so many Christians love the book of Philippians? Among other reasons, because the letter is brief, accessible, memorable, and teeming with joy.

  
• 03.10.2024

  The Most Important People in the World: Why Christians Prioritize the Church

  David Mathis | The Father prioritizes the church by choosing her, the Son prioritizes her by purchasing and purifying her, and the Spirit prioritizes her in his power. So, how do we prioritize the church?

  
• 03.05.2024

  The ‘Ask Pastor John’ Book Is Available

  Tony Reinke | The ‘Ask Pastor John’ book is now available at a 40% discount through our friends at Westminster Bookstore. We encourage you to order through them as you consider supporting faithful, independent Christian booksellers.

  
• 03.03.2024

  Leaders in the Church: Speaking and Living God’s Word

  John Piper | Does church leadership seem endlessly complicated? Take heart. Christian leaders guide God’s people from where they are to where God wants them to go, using God’s methods.

  
• 02.29.2024

  How Jesus Knew the Word: His Secret to Scripture Memory

  David Mathis | How did Jesus know Scripture so well? The same way we can today: through patient, prayerful meditation on the word of God.

  
• 02.25.2024

  Only One Life: Christ’s Invincible Gospel and Global Mission

  John Piper | God is sovereign, and he has purposed his gospel to spread to the ends of the earth. Those who give themselves to that purpose are invincible, even through suffering.

  
• 02.17.2024

  How Jesus Met with God: The Pace and Patterns of a Perfect Life

  David Mathis | Jesus had a full and fruitful ministry, but unlike us, he never seemed hurried or frantic. What can we learn by observing his holy habits during his earthly life?

  
• 01.21.2024

  His Voice in Yours: How Christ Wins the World

  John Piper | God will have worshipers from every nation on earth. He will win them, and do so through us. We have only to tell them.

  
• 01.14.2024

  How to Please a Happy God: Six Glimpses of the Christian Life

  David Mathis | What does it look like to walk in a way that is pleasing to God — to live so that God delights in the aroma of our lives?

  
• 01.07.2024

  Gain What You Cannot Lose: The Joy of World Mission with Jesus

  John Piper | When Christ calls us to the mission field with him, he calls us to deny shallow pleasures, die to ourselves, and enjoy greater and greater delight in him.

  
• 12.29.2023

  Appeal from John Piper

  John Piper | Your prayers and financial support help us bring more people into the fullest enjoyment of the greatest treasure ever found. For every $10 per month you give, we can reach 70 more people with God-centered resources. Would...

  
• 12.27.2023

  One Countercultural Calling: Good and Happy Pastors, Part 3

  David Mathis | Of the fifteen elder qualifications, “one-woman man” and “not quarrelsome” may be the two most at odds with our promiscuous, petty age.

  
• 12.20.2023

  Two Main Tasks in Ministry: Good and Happy Pastors, Part 2

  David Mathis | Scripture says elders should be “able to teach” and “sober-minded” — but why? The two correspond to a pastor’s most important tasks: feeding and leading.

  
• 12.19.2023

  Two Ways to Deal with Jesus: Learning Worship from the Wise Men

  Matthew’s Christmas story shows two ways to deal with Jesus: try to get rid of him like Herod, or fall down and worship him like the wise men.

  
• 12.13.2023

  Three Contrasts in a Leader’s Heart: Good and Happy Pastors, Part 1

  David Mathis | What does Christ call church leaders to be and do? Like him, they labor heartily and happily, not for selfish gain, but for their people’s joy.

  
• 12.10.2023

  Christmas Was and Christmas Is: The Whole Story of Advent

  David Mathis | How do you need God’s help this Advent? What need seems most pressing? Press into the message of Christmas, and you’ll find hope and help in time of need.

  
• 12.06.2023

  If God Speaks: One Voice That Changes Everything

  David Mathis | To read the Bible is to read the very words of God. Do we grasp the significance, the reality-shaking impact, of this seemingly simple truth?

  
• 12.03.2023

  Jesus Came to Save: Ten Great Realities of Christmas

  The birth of John the Baptist was great, but the birth of Jesus Christ was infinitely greater. John prepared for salvation, but Jesus purchased it.

  
• 11.25.2023

  Man of War and Grace: The Greatest of Israel’s Kings

  David Mathis | Some may not think of David, the shepherd king, as particularly masculine, but Scripture paints him in a far more manly and glorious light.

  
• 10.27.2023

  Do Not Believe Every Spirit: The Threat and Defeat of False Teaching Today

  John Piper | Are biblical warnings about false prophets still relevant? Yes, the threat looms as large today as in the first century.

  
• 10.26.2023

  Before You Quit the Ministry: Learning to Count Like Jesus

  David Mathis | Good pastors are not naive: ministry comes with many costs. Even so, Christ has not called us to an impossible, joyless task. The cross proves otherwise.

  
• 10.08.2023

  What’s It Like to Be a Christian? Faith, Obedience, and Living as Strangers

  David Mathis | What is Christian faith? Hebrews 11 not only answers the question but tells us what faith feels like, and how it leads to obedience, and living as exiles in this world.

  
• 09.30.2023

  Whose Son Is the Messiah? King David and the God of Israel

  John Piper | When Jesus asks the Pharisees how David calls the Messiah “Lord,” they refuse to answer. What made that seemingly simple question so incendiary?

  
• 09.25.2023

  God Is: The Life-Altering Reality of Sheer Divine Existence

  John Piper | God is. No reality is more mind-boggling, more valuable, more life-altering, more electrifying than the absolute being of God.

  
• 08.20.2023

  Grace Will Order All Your Pain: Retirement Message for Dana Olson

  John Piper | What is sovereign, sustaining grace? It is not grace that spares us pain, but grace that orders our pain — and then sustains us through the pain.

  
• 08.13.2023

  The Leader You Long to Follow

  David Mathis | From principals to presidents, leadership failures fill the news. We long for someone in power to lead with wisdom and fairness. Praise God, the ideal king has come.

  
• 07.29.2023

  The Spell That Opened Heaven: Funeral Message for Daniel Fuller (1925–2023)

  John Piper | Romans 8:32 is perhaps the greatest verse in the Bible. No other text quite describes how far God has gone for our salvation and will go for our joy.

  
• 06.07.2023

  The Final Hours of Suffering: Funeral Message for Nancy Nelson (1952–2023)

  John Piper | God’s word speaks to the mysteries of suffering. We will only bear pain well as we begin to see it like he does.

  
• 05.28.2023

  Happy Pastors Make Healthy Churches

  John Piper | Christ’s blood bought more than our pardon, precious as it is. His death also purchased the power we need to live a radical Christian life.

  
• 05.21.2023

  Why We Sing About the Blood

  David Mathis | Why do Christians sing about blood? Because of what happened at the cross, the otherwise morbid topic becomes one of glory, thanks, and praise.

  
• 05.19.2023

  More Thrilling to Be Saved Than to Succeed

  John Piper | What excites a Christian most? Our deepest, truest joy does not flow from completed degrees or flourishing ministries, but from the God who saved us.

  
• 05.07.2023

  Do Outsiders Still Matter? An Overlooked Qualification for Pastors

  David Mathis | For pastors to be “well thought of by outsiders” certainly isn’t everything, but it made God’s list of requirements. Is it still on ours?

  
• 04.23.2023

  Why Bethlehem Has a College: Biblical Foundations for Church-Based Education

  John Piper | What makes a college distinctly Christian? Education is not an end in itself, but a means to knowing and loving Christ.

  
• 04.20.2023

  Hamilton: An American Prodigal

  David Mathis | Neither biographers nor Broadway can ignore Alexander Hamilton’s late-flowering Christian faith. He, like the prodigal son, finally came home after his journey into the far country.

  
• 04.13.2023

  Danger Averted, Destiny Attained: Funeral Message for Lois Nelson (1919–2023)

  John Piper | When a Christian goes home to be with the Lord, we who remain have the chance to rehearse God’s loving design in every believer’s death.

  
• 03.16.2023

  Not Dead Yet: Fighting Nine Fears of Old Age

  As we age, fears can multiply like wrinkles. But for every concern, we have a blood-bought promise far, far older than our fears.

  
• 03.12.2023

  The Demons, the Fever, and the Word of the King

  John Piper | While on earth, Jesus spoke with unmatched power. Demons obeyed him, and fevers fled at his word. Everything was subject to him — then and now.

  
• 03.05.2023

  Press Afresh into Jesus: Four Truths About Genuine Faith

  David Mathis | Genuine faith welcomes, enjoys, fears, strives after, and rests in God. And in doing so, genuine faith perseveres.

  
• 01.30.2023

  What Will Man Be Like for Countless Future Ages?

  John Piper | When our hearts run dry, and our good works languish, the Bible bids us: “Consider the end.”

  
• 01.20.2023

  Ordinary Elders, Part 2: Governing as Men Who Teach

  David Mathis | Pastors are first and foremost teachers, but they are not only teachers. They feed the sheep and lead the sheep — and they lead by feeding.

  
• 01.19.2023

  Ordinary Elders, Part 1: Working for the Joy of Others

  David Mathis | The pastors we all want are men who want to pastor, who want to see God move in them and through them for the joy of others.

  
• 01.15.2023

  The Story of the Greatest Coronation

  David Mathis | When Christ ascended into heaven, an otherworldly ceremony commenced. Here was the long-awaited Son of David, the only man angels ever worshiped.

  
• 12.29.2022

  Appeal from John Piper

  John Piper | Your prayers and financial support help us bring more people into the fullest enjoyment of the greatest treasure ever found. For every $10 per month you give, we can reach 70 more people with God-centered resources. Would...

  
• 12.18.2022

  How Majestic Is Our Lord?

  David Mathis | When speaking of God, we grope for fresh language to name the greatness of God. Might we learn to reach more often for the word “majesty”?

  
• 12.11.2022

  The Lord Governs My Good and Is My Good: All of Psalm 16 for a New Year

  John Piper | When we pray for God to preserve us, we ask that he would be not only our Lord, but our life — not only our God, but our highest and everlasting good.