In his first sermon as pastor at Bethlehem, John Piper explains the source of his authority and the reason for his fear.

The world is hungry for people filled with life because they see a reflection of eternity in everything.

The remedy for the darkness of man's mind is not mindlessness but light.

What is God's goal in creating and governing the world? How can I bring my life into alignment with that goal?

God gets glory not from our heroic exertion but from our reliance upon his strength—when we serve as one who serves with the strength which God supplies.

Don't be like the mule but run headlong to God in prayer while he may be found. For the contrite heart which prays will be forgiven and protected and taught the way to God and will be glad in the Lord forever.

God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking his own praise is the ultimately loving act. For him self-exaltation is the highest virtue.

God's glory is manifest both when he heals and when he gives hope and peace to the person he does not heal.

We're made of the same stuff as the saints of old, and they help guide us so that we persevere to the end.

Anything, absolutely any act or attitude which is owing to a lack of trust in God is sin, no matter how moral it may appear to men. God looks on the heart.

Don't let your sinfulness hinder your prayers. Run into the arms of God and fill his ear with arguments that aim for His honor.

Every responsible person, on the basis of their actions and attitudes, will meet the final judgment of God.

It seems that with this passage of Scripture, more than any other, to recite it is also to experience its reality. The psalm itself is green pasture, the psalm itself is still water, the psalm itself restores my soul.

We unseat judges with indignation who acquit the guilty. Our moral sensibility is outraged when wrong and guilt are given legal sanction. Yet at the heart of our gospel stands the sentence: God justifies the ungodly who trust in him. God acquits the guilty. That is the gospel! But how can it be right for God to do that?

I feel myself drawn with David not so much to love the green pastures but the good shepherd, not so much to love the lavish banquet but the bountiful host, and not so much to love the trip to Miami or the bungalow but to love the highway patrolman.

The death of Christ does not turn away the wrath of God from all people. In order to benefit from the work that God has done outside of us, we must now experience the work that he does within us by the Holy Spirit. What is this work and how is it related to the gift of justification?

What are some practical steps that we can take to stay alive to the beauty of God's world?

If we are unmerciful, unforgiving people, if we hold grudges or cherish resentments or plan revenge, then what we are saying in effect to God is, "This is the way I prefer life to be." And so he will give us what we have preferred at the day of judgment; no mercy, no forgiveness, but only vengeance. If Christ has not changed us (and I don't mean perfection, but only significant change), then probably we have never known him.

Christians must be like children in their relationship to God and like God in their relationships to children.

The humble Christian does not crave the praise of men. He longs for God to be praised and thanked and for truth to be honored.

Baptism gives expression to our faith that we are God's from head to toe.

God teaches us things for our good, and he intends for us to share them for the good of our neighbor.

Lord's Supper is a memorial service looking back to Jesus' utterly unique death—a death that so satisfied the righteous demands of God that Jesus was granted to rise from the dead and come again as King of all. The sacrifice of Christ set the charge for the explosion of his second coming.

The way to get ready to make a case for your hope is to get hopeful. Apply yourself to settling the questions of your own heart.

You can't have fullness of joy in Christ if you never tell anybody about it. Declaring the marvelous deeds of God that have brought light into our life is a means to the full enjoyment of that light.

Who you invite to share in your abundance shows where your treasure is.

It is important to try to persuade people, like Luke in his Gospel, of the truth of Christianity.

Baptism is an act of obedience to the command of Jesus (Matthew 28:19, 20). And for that very reason it should never divert our attention away from Christ onto a man. It should express our desire to rely on Christ alone for salvation and to boast only in him.

It is not wrong to want evidence for our faith. Belief is not groundless. But there is an evil in demanding signs beyond what a humble and open heart would require.

What does an all-sufficient God, who owns and controls all things, demand from the creature he has made? That we cease to be great in our own eyes and become small that he might appear great.

You may have never heard of Nazareth, and this young girl may be poor and obscure, but don't judge by merely human outward appearances. Her son is going to be great.

Since the first Christmas we have been living in the last days.

If God values joyful, loving generosity so much as to give his beloved Son to create it in his people, then we can be absolutely assured that when we are more generous, we will be more happy and more fulfilled because God is bound to work mightily for those whose behavior he values so highly.

God is about to change the course of all human history; the most important three decades in all of time are about to begin. And where is God? Occupying himself with two obscure, humble women—one old and barren, one young and virginal.

There is a deadly disease and an awesome enemy. And every one of us will die from this disease and be devoured by that enemy if there is no horn of salvation for us.

You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God.

All the mammoth political forces and all the giant industrial complexes, without their even knowing it, are being guided by God, not for their own sake but for the sake of God's little people—the little Mary and the little Joseph who have to be got from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

For me, the end of a year is like the end of my life. And in these last hours, I face the inevitable question: Did I live it well? Will Jesus Christ, the righteous judge, say "Well done, good and faithful servant"?

Jesus' birth brought a new era in the history of redemption, but one that is still in complete harmony with the old.