Messages by Desiring God

A camel cannot pass through the eye of a needle, nor can we turn our own hearts from loving money to loving Jesus. But what is impossible with man is possible with God.

There is a way to see truth without seeing it — to hear without hearing. For all who listen to sermons, the words of Jesus stand: Take care how you hear.

Though fraught with challenges and temptations to lose heart, preaching the word of God is a glorious privilege. John Piper gives ten reasons why.

God has chosen to bind the fullness of his supernatural effectiveness to the human ministry of the word. So, how might we preach in ways that release his power?

David Mathis | Pastor, all your hearers are hungry for the living God, even if they don’t know it or can’t name it. And only big-God preaching will enduringly satisfy them.

When preachers herald the glory of God from the heart, the pride of man dies, all of life becomes meaningful, and we rejoice like never before.

A church endures in faithfulness only as its leaders and members rejoice in the glory of God, savor the word of God, and treasure the Son of God.

David Mathis | Fellowship is not a nice addition to personal Christianity but a vital means of grace. Through fellowship, we help each other hold fast till heaven.

We were made to see and savor, with everlasting satisfaction, the soul-staggering glory of Christ. Only then will our lusts lose their power.

When we see the glory of God in his word, we know for sure and we rejoice forever. Glory persuades and pleases, gives certainty and satisfaction.

Chipper churches leave no lasting impression on the world. The greatest gift we have to give is indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of suffering and sorrow.

Brothers, if we are going to do good — lasting good — to our churches, then we must preach and lead and counsel and serve in the strength that God supplies.

David Mathis | In this fallen world, expect suffering and sorrows. But also know that, in Christ, they are limited, designed, and rewarded by a kind and gracious God.

David Mathis | As pastors, our first priority each day is not to serve God, help his people, or engage in other ministry, but to get our soul happy in God.

David Mathis | Do you want God to look good in your life? Then heed his invitation to find your deepest hunger, deepest thirst, and deepest longings satisfied in him.

In a world of many authorities, we magnify the supreme lordship of Christ by the way we submit to the fading structures of this age.

Paul’s Christian life was one of countless dangers, continual sorrows, and constant joy. How is that kind of life possible?

David Mathis | God not only speaks to us — he bends his ear to hear us talk. Through the work of Christ and the help of the Spirit, we have the ear of God.

Marshall Segal | When our souls grow dull to spiritual reality, the character of God is our confidence. He has restored us before; he will revive us again.

By God’s design, truth serves emotion. Thinking serves feeling. The lyrics of our best songs serve the Godward longings of our hearts.

David Mathis | What do soldiers, farmers, athletes, and Christians have in common? We endure, through discomfort, to get the reward.

David Mathis | God invites us not only to trust him, fear him, and obey him, but to enjoy him. For as we do, our happiness is full in him, and his glory is great in us.

Faithful parents and teachers speak to kids on their level, but they also aim to create new concepts, new structures of thought, new ways of viewing reality.

Reformed theology is beautiful because the God of sovereign grace is beautiful. The doctrines are windows — he is the glory.

John Piper | Luther didn’t stand alone 500 years ago. Nor does he stand alone today. We’ve created a 31-day journey to introduce you to the many heroes of the Reformation. Join us at desiringgod.org/stand.

Apart from union with Christ, we would have no access to God’s promises and no reason to rejoice in affliction. But in Christ, every promise of God is Yes.

How can Christians be freed from selfishness so that, at any cost to ourselves, we love others in a way that makes Christ look great? Answer: joy.

The apostle Paul was no stranger to ministry’s many strains. Yet for all his afflictions, he neither lost heart nor tampered with the truth. How?

No one can be neutral about Jesus Christ. Either he will have our heart and soul, our life and obedience — or hell will.

When God makes a promise, he keeps it. And he keeps it through his purposeful, all-wise, absolute sovereignty — through his providence.

God’s will is not simply that we obey God’s will, but that we obey it in a certain way: with all of our might for all of our life.

You don’t have to be Christian to love the story of the Good Samaritan. But applauding Luke’s parable apart from his Gospel contradicts his purpose.

When the Bible speaks of “truth,” it refers ultimately to God himself. Therefore, truth demands more than just our minds — truth will have our whole hearts, now and forever.

David Mathis | Our God isn’t just a speaking God — he’s a listening God. Whether we come to him in secret or side by side, God delights to hear his people pray.

David Mathis | When Christians read the Bible, we’re after more than understanding God’s words. We’re after enjoying God’s Word. We’re after Jesus.

David Mathis | God does not leave us to ourselves after saving us. His grace continues to flow to us through his appointed means: Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship.

David Mathis | The new covenant is not a renewed, updated, or expanded covenant — it is actually new. And the new-covenant era calls for new-covenant habits.

David Mathis | In this earthly life, Christians do more than wait for heaven. We belong to heaven, find our hope in heaven, and serve the King of heaven.

God never tests his saints with ill intent. As the Father of lights, his every test aims at the full and lasting happiness of his children.

David Mathis | In Jesus, we find the complex beauty our hearts were made to behold: meekness and majesty, nearness and transcendence, the might of the Lion and the mercy of the Lamb.

David Mathis | The everyday Christian life is both a gift and a duty. By God’s own indwelling power, we work out what Christ has won.

David Mathis | The Christian life has one final aim: to know and enjoy Jesus. He justified us to know him, we daily press on to know him more, and one day we will know him fully and forever.

Marshall Segal | What counsel does the book of James offer for our relationships? Submit to God, ask for wisdom, temper your words, calm your anger, and embrace godly community.

David Mathis | When we stop and look, we find that we know a lot more about Jesus’s spiritual disciplines than we might think. What can we learn from the prayer life of the Savior?

David Mathis | When we think of spiritual disciplines, we might immediately think of our time alone with God, but the Christian faith is a community project. We all need the body of Christ.

David Mathis | Whomever God justifies, he also sanctifies. What means has he given us to keep growing in holiness?

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.

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

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?

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.