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.

Beware of a church that runs on the momentum of tradition rather than the power of prayer.

If we are unloving and unrepentant then we should not think that God is likely to answer our prayers.

I feel tremendously challenged by the example of Jesus to strive for increased wisdom and understanding of Scripture.

Let your prayers embrace all kinds of people: high and low, white and black, democrats and republicans, Soviet premiers and Iranian Ayatollahs. Enlarge your heart until it embraces the world.

Our prayers should always aim not merely at our own satisfaction, but also at the benefit of others.

There are six things that should characterize every effort at team ministry in the church.

No single sin, not even suicide, evicts a person from heaven into hell.

God's Word is every Christian's infallible guide to maximum sexual fulfillment.

Don't trust in the kind of tree you are. If there is no fruit that accords with repentance, you will be destroyed.

Marital sex is a great joy that also proves to be a fearsome weapon against our ancient foe.

You can tell where a man's heart is resting by the way he handles his money and by the attitude he has toward his possessions.

Something has to happen if we are to be saved from the wrath of God. We must be profoundly changed.

You can learn more from a book if you stop and ask it questions than if you just read it passively. That includes the Bible too.

The great problem in contemporary Christian living is not learning the right things to do but how to do the right things. The problem is not to discover what love looks like but how to love by the Spirit.

The fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song.

God gives us spiritual gifts so that we can help others keep the faith in the midst of life's storms.

The church is the cosmic showcase of God's mercy, but he gets cosmic reproach when we fail to receive his mercy with joy.

There are at least seven qualifications if a group wants to be a church in the NT sense.

Jesus Christ is always eager and willing to make peace with anyone who will accept the terms of peace he offers.

God loves his holiness with infinite love and cherishes his purity. This is the starting point for understanding God and man and the world. If we don't start here everything goes askew.

Both thieves wanted to be saved from death. But O how differently they sought their salvation.

If we are going to love like Jesus loved, even in times of great stress and worry, then we must be filled with living hope.

It is relatively unimportant to Satan whether we are healthy or sick, rich or poor; what he wants is to sift out our faith. If he can do it by suffering, he will try that; if he can do it by wealth, he will try that.

You can't bless somebody if you desire their harm. If you are a follower of Jesus, you must desire the good of everyone, no matter what their race or nationality.

What does it mean to "fear the Lord"? And why is it so important that we praise a woman who fears the Lord?

What is wisdom? And what are some biblical instructions for how I can get it?

Why was Jesus' ascension into heaven good news for his disciples?

When God almighty pours himself into an individual, the inner life is changed; it is filled with God.

How you do your job is an essential part of Christian discipleship.

We must honor God above the state. But if the state does not require us to disobey Jesus then we should be subject for the Lord's sake.

Do not fear the work God calls you to. He loves you deeply, knows you fully, and will turn all for your good.

Never underestimate the power of truth spoken in a single sentence.

We are afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst, for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ.

Jesus is God's fullest revelation and the source of all the knowledge and power that is good for us to have.

Labor to feast on Jesus. Satisfy yourself with his beauty and his hope-filled fellowship.

Only worship is an end in itself. Only worship should not be done as a means to achieving something other than itself.

God designs human support to sustain his children's faith and to lighten the burdens they bear in the service of love.

When you value someone because they value God, you are not denying that God is your only good; you are expressing it.

Since God created everything, we and all our so-called possessions are his to do with as he pleases.

Total abstinence may be the best way to treat alcohol today, but it should not be a requirement for church membership.

The essence of the Fall and of our depraved hearts is the desire not to depend on God.

Everything that you try to do will come to nothing unless you do it through a conscious, abiding dependence on the enablement of Christ.

God's 4,000 year old relation to Abraham is of immense importance for your life as a believer today.

Witnessing physical hunger should cause the church to wake up to the worldwide ravages of spiritual starvation.

God shows great power on behalf of his people so that others might see and fear.

As I was reading about Joseph's unjust imprisonment the other day, I was struck all of a sudden with the similarity and contrast between Joseph and John the Baptist.

The law is a description of the obedience of faith; it is not a job description for how to earn the wages of God's blessings.

Do not grumble; it is God's grace that sends you into the wilderness. He is inoculating you against the infections of wealth.

Gratitude is not an act of will power but the glad response of one who acknowledges grace.

If the old Joshua was victorious over the enemies of God, then how much more the new Joshua.

The way we seek to have something may be wrong, when the having, itself, may not be wrong.

The promise will be fulfilled in spite of all judgment.

Christmas marks the arrival of the end of history, which will soon be consummated by Christ's second appearing.

You can't cleave to Christ with white-hot devotion if you don't remember and feel what your plight would be without him.

Before God enables his people to bring in a harvest, he pours out a Spirit of prayer upon them. The surest sign that God is about to send power upon us is a great movement of prayer in our midst.

Your power to give a compassionate witness about Jesus is in direct proportion to how precious Jesus is to you.