Messages by Desiring God

Scott Hubbard | To his friends, George Müller embodied Psalm 23 even under the towering burdens of orphan ministry. What kind of communion with God made such peace possible?

David Mathis | How can exercise equip us for the daily fight against sin? Training the body for our joy, mind, and will frees us to pursue every good work.

John Piper | God fulfills his purpose for the church by his work in the church: He magnifies his grace by beautifying his people.

David Mathis | God’s voice thunders through the forests and the pages of Scripture, calling heaven to rejoice and setting his people at peace. Do you tremble at the force of his word?

Sharing God’s nature and upholding creation by his word, the heir of all things suffered in our place to purify us from sin. Who is like Jesus Christ?

David Mathis | The church depends on Jesus Christ for its existence, authority, and ultimate joy. But how does the God-man’s nature direct the church’s health?

For the preaching pastor, each sermon demands a fresh hunt for insight in service of a hungry people. How do we find that life-giving truth?

David Mathis | To lead the church faithfully, we need supernatural, sober-minded wisdom. God meets us in his word, by his Spirit, through prayer, with a team.

Jesus endured for the joy set before him. Moses obeyed, expecting the Messiah. The early church suffered for a better reward. This is faith.

Scott Hubbard | Self-awareness can be good, but it can also go too far. Our thoughts of self often grow quieter when we look to God and follow where he leads.

David Mathis | Exercise may seem like a distraction from a life of serving others, but God can use our movement to deepen our joy and broaden our love.

Marshall Segal | When the Bible talks about setting an example, does it mean only super-Christians? No, even the humblest high-school mentor can make the right mark.

David Mathis | Pursuing a holy ambition means seeking maturity in Christ more than we seek influence in the world. An enduring example takes hidden work.

When God ordains sufferings for the good of his people, he also sustains them and cares for them with all the strength of his love.

Because God’s purposeful sovereignty reaches absolutely everywhere, his gospel can satisfy, his mission will succeed, and his people can never be lost.

Jesus’s glorified body, his purpose for believers, his astonishing power, and the glory of the new creation all insist that the resurrection must happen.

Marshall Segal | Jesus’s sheep are happy to be his, and Jesus will never leave them behind. But why would anyone reject this patient, kind, and powerful Savior?

There has never been, nor will there ever be, a greater reality than the God we see when we look at Jesus Christ. His very supremacy is our deepest hope.

David Mathis | How can we sing in the valley of sorrow? In Christ, joy and grief can coexist — and grief now prepares for us far greater joy in the end.

What is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and how does it relate to making music to God in a church gathering? God opens our eyes so we can sing to him.

Marshall Segal | Where will we find true blessedness? Sexual sin tempts us to find it in fleeting, false pleasures — but God’s promises hold out a better, surer joy.

David Mathis | Where do we find more of God’s grace to increase our joy in Christ? God has created patterns for us to follow in reading, prayer, and fellowship.

David Mathis | When Jesus came to Bethlehem, and later to Jerusalem, he was not the king we expected. He was far, far better.

Joy in Jesus is an invitation and a privilege. Is it also a duty? John Piper lays out six reasons joy in God is essential to the Christian life.

When we believe in Jesus, we receive him as living water, bread of life, and all-satisfying treasure. Saving faith is the awakening of joy in Christ.

David walked with God through disasters, diseases, attacks, and his own sins. What pattern of life did he follow to depend on God through it all?

How do Christians respond to God’s fatherly indignation against our sin? The prophet Micah teaches us: Respond with brokenhearted boldness, with contrite courage.

David Mathis | God invites us to quench our thirst by hearing his voice, having his ear, and belonging to his body. So, come stand under the waterfall of his grace.

Cowardice, consumption, and comfort often stand between us and God’s global work. What can set us free to be world Christians?

David Mathis | Does seeking joy in God ruin our love for others? Jesus meant what he said: Remembering God’s radical reward frees us to serve those in need.

David Mathis | As the Son of God, Jesus pursued his joy and God’s glory in an unrepeatable way — but as man, he stands forth as an example for our own pursuit of joy.

David Mathis | Christian, your joy in God shows the kind of God he is: awesome and glorious, happy and holy, beautiful and delightful beyond measure. So, come, eat, drink, and rejoice.

What are the doctrines of grace? Before we wade into the depths of these doctrines, we need to know something of the greatness of God.

David Mathis | Those who cherish God’s majesty become a certain kind of people: a commending, called, candid, conquering, and soon-to-be crowned church.

Marshall Segal | How do mature Christians pray when trouble comes? David teaches us from Psalm 86: “Meet my need.” “Glorify your name.” “Teach me your way.” “Gladden my heart.”

In Jesus Christ, we find a Treasure more precious than everything we have in life and everything we lose in death.

How does the chief end of man — to glorify God by enjoying him forever — shape our approach to classical Christian education?

Marshall Segal | No sin is too great, no place is too far, and no wall is too high to keep us from receiving the living water of Jesus — if only we’ll come to him.

Tony Reinke | No star or ocean, insect or tree, bird or cloud has a voice to speak God’s praise. But when we rejoice in God, we take creation’s worship and put it into words.

As Jesus bleeds in Gethsemane and then submits to arrest, we see that the mission of God triumphs through prayerful suffering, not the self-defending sword.

When Jesus returns in glory, he will stand ashamed of those who were ashamed of him here. But what will it really mean for Jesus to be ashamed?

David Mathis | How might regular exercise serve not just our bodies but our souls, and so make us more ready to honor God by doing good to others?

David Mathis | Our “habits of grace” prime us for witnessing, giving, and serving — and God uses even these outward expressions to give us even more grace.

Marshall Segal | When our Bible meditation feels more like a job than a joy, these five short prayers can take us beyond discipline into delight.

Why did God set his saving love on his people before the foundation of the world? So that we might praise the glory of his sovereign grace.

David Mathis | Did Jesus endure the cross for his joy or despite it? The answer takes us to the heart of Jesus’s unusually human joy, and ours.

It’s one thing to know God is sovereign; it’s another to know just how far his sovereignty extends and the purposes for which he wields it.

David Mathis | At the end of his Gospel, John gives us a grand finale of the mercy, wisdom, greatness, and never-ending glory of Jesus Christ.

The story of Jesus and Thomas assures us that Jesus really rose bodily, that his patience surpasses our indwelling sin, and that we need not see to believe.

David Mathis | Where do we turn when the ground beneath our feet seems to buckle and shift? Psalm 46 offers a vision of God to keep us through any crisis.

How can we be set free from selfishness so that, at any earthly cost to ourselves, we will love other people in a way that makes Christ look great?

Tony Reinke | In the age of artificial intelligence, do we still need preachers? Answering that question well takes us to the heart of God-glorifying preaching.

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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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”?

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.

David Mathis | “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.” How happy might we be if we heeded Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s counsel?

At the root of all conflict is man’s conflict with God. At Christmas, we celebrate that God took the initiative to establish true peace.

David Mathis | “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.” How happy might we be if we heeded Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s famous counsel?

David Mathis | Blessed is the leader who meditates on God’s law day and night — not just in public, but all the more in secret.

When it comes to missions, reasons abound to stay rather than to go. But for every apparent obstacle, countless promises say, “It will be worth it.”

What do we call an obsessively self-centered person? An egomaniac. Then what should we call God, who demands all our praise? We call him gracious.

The Puritans took joy seriously because they read the Bible carefully. They saw that delight in God is at the heart of all true obedience.

David Mathis | The Father not only planned for his Son to die, but was pleased to crush him. And for those in Christ, this can be as comforting as it is astonishing.

Marshall Segal | Do you ever stop, slow down, and marvel at something God has made? If we could see it all like he does, we’d see far more than we do.

You will not be perfect in this life, but you can be pleasing to God. You can become a real ingredient in the divine happiness.

David Mathis | When loss surrounds us, when fears assail us, we have a banner to which to flee. We turn to the God who has spoken, and there find real hope and strength.

Before he created the earth, God knew pain would plague this world. And not only knew, but planned. And not only planned — but purposed.

The individual soul’s affection for God is essential to the corporate, eternal reality of the worshiping church.

When glad in God, we bend low in love for others. We imitate Christ, who not only bowed the knee but hung his body on the tree.

David Mathis | Good preachers carry many burdens before preaching, while preaching, and after preaching — and the rewards still outweigh the costs.

God promises us his life-sustaining presence, even as he leads us into waterless regions of suffering and loss.

David Mathis | Psalm 46 teaches us God can handle the earth’s undoing and nations raging against his people — and that if he can do that, he can be a very present help in our trouble.

Faith does not shipwreck upon the rocks of history, logic, science, or ethics, but on the mountains of sinful desire.

Humility flourishes in hearts that focus not on being humble, but on gladly exalting Jesus, who is superior to us in every possible way.

There is a kind of unhealthy preaching that fails to make plain the effective connection between the sin-bearing work of Christ and the sin-killing work of the Christian.

David Mathis | What if, with some intentionality, the news could become a source of refreshment rather than a continual distraction and discouragement?

David Mathis | We boast on Sunday because Christ died on Friday. No cross, no favor with God. No crucifixion, no resurrection. We live because he died.

David Mathis | How do we meet with God in his word for a lifetime? Every morning, seek to gather a day’s portion.

David Mathis | What is freedom in Christ? Freedom from trying to earn God’s acceptance, and freedom to know and enjoy God forever.

Why does the apostle Paul speak so much about himself and his suffering? Because his suffering for the sake of others makes the love of Christ tangible to them.

David Mathis | Before we step out to attempt big, ambitious things for Jesus, we need to prepare ourselves to receive and embrace the humbling that will inevitably come.

David Mathis | Why would Christians exercise? Working and pushing these bodies, as God designed them, serves our learning, our joy, and our love.

The sovereign supremacy of Christ both keeps us from error and enables us to persevere through hardships with patience and joyful thankfulness.

Joy in God becomes our stronghold when we are awakened to see and savor him as our greatest joy.

Tony Reinke | Is a lightning rod — and by extension, all other tech — an act of faith or an act of God-thwarting unbelief?

The first Christmas brought good news. With it came fearless, great joy for all those who confess, “Jesus is Lord.”

In 2021, Bethlehem Baptist celebrated 150 years as a church. As part of the celebration service, former pastor John Piper reflects on how a church could endure, and bear fruit, over generations.

David Mathis | God made us to be led, every one of us. He designed us to thrive, not in autonomy, but under the wisdom and care of worthy leaders.

Tony Reinke | Many of us today love to swipe, scroll, and stare, but hardly read. Tony Reinke shares 23 tips for reading more and better in a digital age.

John Piper | About changes to this podcast.

Prayer says more than the words it speaks. The act of praying vocalizes a profound reality: God himself abides in us, and we abide in him.

David Mathis | Moses made an audacious request. God answered — but only in part. And what he revealed at Sinai pales in comparison to Calvary.

The church exists for missions — and because of missions. God plans for his people to come from the peoples, a promise he first made to Israel.

God plans to win the world with singing. Here are five connections between our joy-filled worship and the finishing of the Great Commission.

The Lamb who was slain will one day receive the reward of his suffering — people will come to him in joyful faith from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Christian leaders often carry great burdens. But God never leaves them without the opportunity to know serious joy, even in the hardest trials.

One of the most challenging commands in all the Bible is to rejoice when reviled. It’s not just difficult; it is humanly impossible.

How do joy and sorrow mingle in the Christian life? Does joy come only after sorrow passes, or can it come in the very midst of our griefs?

Christ has secured innumerable benefits for his people. But without this central, most foundational achievement, all the rest would collapse.

Abortion holds out hope that ending the unborn child’s life will spare you misery and hardship. But doing the right thing will never ruin your life.

Believing in Jesus, according to the Gospel of John, overlaps with love because it involves an act of the soul whereby one receives Jesus as their soul-satisfying bread, thirst-quenching water, and life-giving vine.

The central work of pastoral ministry is leading the people of God by feeding them with the word of Christ.

The lines of the Lord’s Prayer tend to pass by our eyes, and through our mouths, in a routine manner. But what might we be missing in our familiarity?

What does Bible reading look like for John Piper? In this message to fathers, he tells personal stories and shares how he has weaved Bible reading into all of life.

The nature of genuine saving faith isn’t mere mental assent, but receiving all that God is for us in Jesus Christ.

Suffering may quiet our singing for a time, but God designed singing to sustain our souls. And one day, we will sing forever with unrestrained joy.

What sinners and Satan intend for evil, God always superintends for good. Our all-wise God brings restoration from ruin and deliverance out of danger.

To exposit a text is only one part of preaching and teaching. We must drill down into the words and unearth the reality that holds the text together.

Preachers, instead of taking your text and making a beeline to the cross, take the cross and make a beeline to your text.

True contentment in Christ not only guards against our ever-changing circumstances, but frees us to overflow in costly love to others — even our enemies.