"You Don't Plan Your Life" (A Conversation with John Piper at CROSS CON24)

and now we want to do what we did a few years ago and have a conversation with Pastor John Piper Pastor John thank you so much for being here again for being at Cross conference a pleasure uh but before we begin will you just open our time together in a word of prayer father I ask that you would bring to mind now to Ben and to my mind the things that would be most effective in Awakening A saving knowledge of Jesus and a an irresistible sense of your calling on the lives of a th000 people

a tithe of this 10,000 to find themselves in 30 years having crossed a culture learned a language and given themselves utterly to the completion of your cause in this world I ask this in Jesus name amen amen thank you brother so I kind of want to pick up where we left off last time you made a very interesting statement you said when you were 20 years old you had the maybe the three most important weeks of your life laying in a hospital bed why might those be the three most important weeks of your life well

there at least two specific reasons for for why it was 1966 it was uh right after summer school I had just met and Fallen madly in love with Noel Henry and um I had just heard from the Lord I thought unmistakably in April that I should be a Premed student and head for medical school so I took chemistry in summer school and signed up for organic chemistry in the fall and uh found myself flat on my back with mononucleosis as the semester began and I watched my organic chemistry possibilities falling away as I lie there

and uh Harold John aenay Pastor from Boston was speaking at the spiritual emphasis week in the chapel about 200 yards to my right as I lay in bed and I'm listening on the College radio station and everything in me said I would love to be able to handle the Bible like that and it was so compelling after 3 days that I knew didn't matter whether I could catch up in organic chemist istry I was going to drop that course anyway and um I'm heading for theological education so here's the deal with Noel so that that

was totally life shaping right yeah I missed it in April so if you think you know God's will for your life you probably don't so I missed it I missed it in April all my subjective senses of God's leading were wrong I hope my whole life would be misdirected if that were not the case she Noel had a doctor for a dad and thought she was falling in love with a Premed student which she was and so she comes in one day to the hospital room and and I say to her you know [Music] these

Chapel messages have just undone me and um I'm not going to I'm not going to pursue a medical school I'm going to go to a seminary and learn how to handle the Bible like that what do you think about that and she said what she always has said for 55 years now actually 57 cuz we didn't get married for another 2 and A2 years uh um I fell in love with you not your vocation wow and uh it's been that way ever since she's been an absolutely glorious godsent support for my life and Ministry so

so those two things I think warranted that statement yeah um I mean you're you're Mar under under submitting to Jesus who you marry and what you do with your whole life are are I think about the two biggest things things you could and if it takes God to put you in the hospital to make those things clear then don't begrudge a little Seminary of suffering amen yeah yeah yeah I think it's just good for you guys to know that some of you who are 19 18 19 and 20 this could be the week or the

year in which God radically changes and Alters your life forever and you should believe he's able and willing to do that okay on the line of that you've said before that you didn't plan your life and that no body plans their life uh why is that encouraging why is that important for us to know well it's important to know because it's true um James chapter 4 um vers 15 Following come now all you 10,000 students come now you who say today or tomorrow I will go up to such and such a town and spend a

year there and trade and get gain you don't know about your life what is your life it is a vapor instead you ought to say if the Lord Wills we will live and do this or that but as it is you are arrogant in saying I'm going back to my hotel tonight unless there is this deep sense of if the Lord Wills I'll go back to my hotel tonight and if he doesn't then I may die between now and then so those two those two words are all encompassing you ought to say if the Lord

Wills we will live which means every heartbeat right now is a gift you don't deserve it and he could stop it just like that and he would have done you no no wrong and number two we will live and do this or that me the posture you're in right now is dictated by the Lord you get your legs crossed that's because God willed it 10 million years ago if you don't believe that then you ought to be at this conference because that's what we stand for the all pervasive sovereignty of God and his total governance

of the world so it's true that God plans our lives and we don't ultimately now secondly It just fits with experience like how many of you just raise your hand how many of you chose the family in which you were born go hands how many of you chose to be male or female that's a controversial question but you'll hear more about that and that's a serious that's a serious issue today but you know what I mean you didn't you didn't choose you didn't choose your ethnicity you didn't choose the town you were born in you

didn't choose the socio economic status you were born into the nation you were born into you didn't choose anything to get started in this world and almost all of it dictates what you've become that's that's a piece now just take my own life let's just start in college why did I go to the Seminary I went to well there were palm trees in the catalog that's a crummy reason to go to a seminary I met Dan Fuller at Fuller Seminary and everything changed that was the most important event of my life after those two big

events that that I would sit in eight classes with this man who gave me the big God he gave me Christian Hedonism he gave me assiduous attentiveness to the word of God what would have happened to me if I had not gone and I went for all the wrong reasons I didn't plan this it was just G it's was a gift to me so here I come at the end now I've been in seminary for 3 years I don't know what to do I'm 25 years old is that right yeah was 22 I'm 25 now

and the teacher said well uh if you don't know what to do on just go ahead and get the last degree and then you can do anything I said okay where should I go to graduate school well I got turned down at the one place I applied America I applied to Basel and Munich and Durham and uh the only place where Noel could get a job and support us for a year and a half till she got pregnant was Munich so we went to Munich I didn't choose Munich God chose Munich so I'm done with

I'm done with three years of graduate school now I got a wife I got a kid I got put bread on the table nobody in America knows I exist I've been out of the country for three years I'll do anything for Jesus just let me use my Bible and along comes a graduate student who says well I think they need a one-year sabatical replacement at bethl College in St Paul bethl College never heard of it where's St Paul I mean I'm really provincial I I don't know anything I've never been to Minnesota in my life

I got to have a job they took me for one year it turned into six I've been in Minnesota for 50 years wow South Carolina I born in South Carolina and I've been in Minnesota for 50 years you think I chose that that's crazy why would anybody live in Minnesota right so I go to Minnesota and that one year turned into six years I loved all of it and God just moves in so mighty and says I want you to preach not just teach want you to Herald these truths from Romans 9 not just analyze

the god of Romans 9 so move toward a pastorate and I I go to the denominational headquarters and I say I'm going to leave teaching and I'm going to look for a church what would you suggest and they said we know the church go to Bethlehem where's Bethlehem Downtown Minneapolis they're just building a Metrodome nearby I got in the car went down there and looked around and that's where they called me and I've been there I was at the church for 33 years I mean you don't plan your life just get over it you don't

plan your life so here's what here's what the Lord wants from you and we've heard it already several times is he wants your flat out 24/7 Devotion to him and his calling on Holiness in your life the will of God for your life is Holiness he will guide you if your life is absolutely devoted to I'll go anywhere I'll do anything you ought to be able to say that every day I will go anywhere and do anything just lead me I'm flat out totally devoted to Jesus you don't plan your life God plans your life

amen so with that you weren't aimless in your life you had some ambition uh I assume it wasn't your ambition to be famous uh to make Calvinism cool to speak at conferences to write all these books right did you have ambition is ambition okay with though we trust that God plans Our Lives is okay for us to have desires and Ambitions and pursue different things ambition is okay because because Romans 15 says that Paul said my ambition is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named you talk about ambition this man was totally

devoted to getting the gospel to places where it wasn't yet known holy ambition is of the Lord and not near nearly enough of you have it right so one of the reasons we have this conference is to awaken holy ambition an Unholy ambition is make a lot of money and be famous and live in the suburbs and live the American dream and a holy ambition is to be willing to lay your life down for Jesus whatever whatever he calls you to do so I I would probably be naive to say that at every single point

in my life there was no successful temptation to want to be noticed for the wrong reasons but as far as my conscious aim was concerned money didn't mean anything to me and um being famous didn't mean anything but I'll tell you when it comes to how God Saves us the sovereignty of God God in the salvation of Sinners called Calvinism I got Ambitions I want all of you to be Calvinists just I want all of you to believe in the total depravity of the soul in the unconditional election of God in the definite atonement of

the Lord and the irresistibility of his grace and the perseverance of the sa this is just glorious gospel truth called Calvinism yeah I mean that's that's why we exist as that we who was uh training and leading or leading and teaching was up there he said we're we're reformed and we're baptistic and we're complimentary well this is not a baptistic conference so a lot of you are Baptists this is that part we're going to tolerate a lot of difference not a lot but some Kev oh we'd be happy for you all to be Baptist I

mean you're welcome the water nice as far as reformed and complementarian that's what we are and we're not going to sweep it under the under the rug so the answer is um yes I have uh Ambitions I have Ambitions to this day I I sit there in my my chair with Noel in our living room thinking good night my life is easy whatever happened to the pressures I used to live under so I got out my little I got my little booklet that I car around this little thing you ought to have a field book

I know you have phones instead but I don't I don't think it's quite the same I have a field book and I got it out and I wrote down my goals for uh 2024 just the things that are expected of me working for Desiring God full-time and at the end I thought okay I didn't put down anything for about the three hours free I have every night and the 8 to 12 hours I have free every Saturday and I just won't put anything on the calendar for Sunday so 3 * uh 5 is 15 and

15 + 10 for Saturday is 25 hours and and everything in me says what can I do with that what can I do with that what just watch stuff watch stuff on TV we didn't even have a TV we haven't had a TV for 50 years in our marriage of course we got computers same thing I get that but I I don't want I've got Ambitions I want my life to count for those 25 hours I don't want to just veg every night and on Saturday putting around in the yard of the garage and I

I believe in keeping a nice yard for the neighborhood so yeah uh I I do have ambition and I suspect um the forms and kind and kind of ambition I have have have produced books and conferences and things like like that which has you know but but Fame you know is very relative I'm a big fish in a little teeny Pond I mean how how many people we just crossed 8 billion right in in the world what percentage of those people know who John Piper is 0.1% I never done the math but more or less

it's you no don't get a big head if you're popular among 12 people no or 12,000 or million it's no big deal yeah yeah yeah that's helpful you said before if you go back to your when you were 22 you would join a Bible believing Bible preaching Bible structured Bible obedient church that's a lot of Bible uh why do Christians need the local church why do what why do we need the local church we have God's spirit we have God's word we have look at the book and Desiring God why do we need the local

church why should they commit their life to the local church because God says to don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together the whole Assumption of everything Paul wrote was that Christ has a body on the earth and that all people are members of the body and it's just crazy to think you can be a member of a body living in the woods and not relating to the other members of the body that's just crazy can't you can't you just don't believe the Bible if you try to live a life isolated from the body manifesting its

local Expressions but here's here's the payoff I think I can mention two or three things number one God has saved my marriage more than one through corporate worship I don't doubt it I mean Noel and I we've been married 55 years and they've been um sometimes in battled years not knowing why we hurt each other with our words not w why we can't communicate the way we'd like just there have been seasons of Christian Counseling and life has not been easy at home always and I'll get my back up about something that no El says

or did now I'm a pastor right so I go to church to preach and things are crummy at home crummy that's a nice word for it and I'm on the front Pew and Chuck is leading Us in songs like these and the mercy of God lifted up in song and his patience and his kindness have broken over me like a wave that has often said you're an idiot Piper for prioritizing your little pain over her or over the gospel or over the church get real wake up get your get the world sorted out here in

other words corporate worship has sorted out my life it has made things look real it has put big things make make things look big and little things look little and rescued me from pouting and self-pity that's number one you cannot begin to estimate if you're totally engaged in corporate worship surrounded by people who are engaged it will save your marriage it will save your job it'll save your calling it'll save your sanity number two if you I mean my guess is most of you here are are asking the question how can I know what to

do with the rest of my life I mean practically uh it's nice to say you should just try to be holy but come on Piper we have to do something have to make some money have to have a place to live uh if I'm going to get married I have to be able to support or be a part of a support team how do I do that and my answer is you'll find out what your gifts are and what your calling is not by going off by yourself and pleading with God to reveal it to

you but by embedding yourself in a local church and using whatever gifts you can to serve other people that's absolutely way at handed happened so I go off to Seminary not knowing at all what I should do with this precious book that I love the Bible and after one semester I realized I got to be involved in the church so I embed Noel and me in Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena California and uh I say to John McClure John I need I need to do something he says can you teach seventh grade boys I said

I don't know I'll try he put me in seventh grade boys and and I did it and the next year he said how about ninth grade boys I said sure CU they they split them up boys and girls and I taught ninth grade boys I felt I I devoted about four hours every Saturday to get ready for this class I wanted to do my very best ambition to give him my very best on Sunday morning and at the end of that year there was one more year to go the Galilean young adult Sunday school class

came to me and said would you teach us the upshot of this was I'm a teacher I'm a teacher these the these seventh grade boys loved it these ninth grade boys loved it this young married class they loved it I'm a teacher that's who I am so go get trained to be a teacher and it only I mean I I I I taught for six years and then God said actually I have another chapter I want you to Proclaim you've explained long enough okay just open you I want you to Proclaim I want you to

heral like a a town crier hear ye hear ye hear ye so that's the second thing is you will find out who you are in relation to other people I've been I've been trying to help folks recently find a way and I ask them like they think they want to do this I say has anybody in encouraged you in that and said that you're especially fruitful in that they said no I said well that's probably not it that's that's really a big deal and then the third thing was you're probably going to find your spouse

at church or in some church related thing that's I mean we have a strange culture right you have to go searching to find a spouse praise God for cultures where they just set it up you know and sure would be a lot simpler but not going to change not going to happen we live in a very individualistic culture so you're going to have to sort this out which is not easy but it sure helps if you have Christian Community yeah most people see the church as an event on the calendar but in the New Testament

we see it as a people to Center our life around uh you're not meant to live this Christian life alone you're meant to be involved in local church Center your life around those people and let God minister to you through those people uh cuz you're going to go through difficulty and trial in this life and and with that I kind want to talk about Affliction in the Christian life so Luke 22 Jesus says to Peter Satan has asked to sift you like wheat now most of us would assume that Jesus would say but I told

him he couldn't have you but that's not what Jesus says Jesus says and I've prayed that your faith would not fail what does it mean to be sifted by Satan have you yourself been sifted yes why does God allow his people to be sifted um well I I I think I can give one clear answer from second Corinthians but let me just stay with Peter for just a minute so Jesus told Peter before he said that you're going to deny me three times this is a done deal Jesus doesn't make mistakes you're going to fail

Y and then he tells him Satan has asked to have you that he may sift you like wheat and I've prayed for you that your faith fail not when you have turned not if when you have turned strengthen your brothers so I'm assuming that that little interchange there is part of the answer to why I want you to be stronger than you are you're you're not strong as you think you are you are not strong you think you're going to last this night you think you're going to die with me you're not you're going to

wimp out and deny me three times but I have prayed now I think what Jesus means when he says that your faith fail not I think his faith failed yeah he did not trust God for the strength or the courage to be honest and true that's my Lord I'll die with him he didn't have the faith for that he failed but he didn't fail [Music] utterly utterly he went out and he wept bitterly and he turned and he became a valiant spokesman so I think the answer to why God lets Satan sift us and sift

I think means so you got this this Civ yeah and you put the grain in it and you and and you the uh you purify whatever this this shells on top of the grain comes out comes out the bottom and he wants to sift your faith out of your life and just rub you over these harsh things so that what comes through is you minus Faith that's the sifting of the devil whether it's pleasure or whether it's pain he's going to sift your faith out of your life that's his his goal and Jesus is praying

for you if you're a Believer Jesus is praying for you that that not happen utterly so how did he fix it and we all know what Jesus did they were out in the boat and and and they're not catching anything and Jesus is throw the net on the other side they catch a lot of fish John says it's the Lord Peter puts his clothes on and jumps into the water swims the shore and Jesus says and I I want some of you right now to hear Jesus say this to you because you have blown it

you have totally blown it the way Peter did right you have denied the Lord in whatever ways so I want you to hear Jesus say do you love me Peter yes you you know that I love you feed my sheep do you love me Peter Lord I love you feed my Lambs do you love me Peter Peter was distraught yes Lord I love you feed my sheep why three times to rebuild this man who blew it three times right I deny you I deny you I deny you I love you I love you I love

you that's what I hope is happening at this conference that that you hear the Lord Jesus say do you love me and you hear him say feed my Lambs it might be in a Sunday school class and it might be in Afghanistan or India or North Korea or Cuba or Vietnam amen in light of that we've talked about sovereignty and suffering that we don't plan our life that God is the one who plans our life which means he plans our suffering so in that so for for me when I was in my teens and 20s

I felt almost Invincible like my life was up into the rights why wouldn't I get to do what I want to do I just I didn't I didn't sense my own Frailty and when I got into my 30s it's almost like God removed this Veil and I realized how broken this thing actually is and how vulnerable I actually am and how thin the line between life and death actually is and he can cause you to despair when you see that so how do we be sober about our own vulnerability in the world without being paralyzed

by fear without being paralyzed that that the sifting is coming and I just want to flee from it how can we not be paralyzed but trust God in the midst of these trials well let me go back and and close the arc to James 4 and say that the the ballast in your boat and you know what ballast is for so you got your life is a boat the world is a sea and the waves are suffering of of any kind adversity frustration uh things that are going to upset your boat and drown you and

ballast is weight in the bottom of the boat that that makes it harder for the waves to tip you over because the the weight at the bottom of the boat I think ballast the the the heart of the ballast is the sovereignty of God that God is absolutely Sovereign I am God and there is no other I am God and there's none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done saying my counsel will stand I will accomplish all my purpose or job at the end of his life

after all his sufferings he said now I've heard of you by the I've heard by the hearing of the year and now I see you I Repent in Dustin ashes and know that no purpose of yours can be thwarted so if if you in this conference confirm I really believe in the absolute all pervasive Sovereign God you will not be fragile you you live among millions of your peers who have been coddled books have been written about your generation coddled and you are emotionally fragile meaning somebody gets in your face and says something critical you

pout or you blame or you Sue or you cuss or you you just I will not be treated that way and you can't read your Bible which says blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely rejoice in that day I mean come on do you just does any of you rejoice when you are reviled we need miracles to happen in this room we want you to go home able to be so strong so deep so knowing who you are in Christ any body can revile

you and it won't paralyze you it won't blow you over that's that's the only way that the world is going to be reached the nations are going to be reached so the S the sovereignty of God is the ballast in your boat and now I'll just add one thing the sovereignty of God will do nobody any good unless he's for you you Those whom he fornew he destined and those who be predestined he called and those who be called he justified and those who be justified he glorified what shall we say to these things if

God is for us who can be against us he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not with him freely give us all things you got to be you got to be confident of that God is going to give you all things in fact you have them already the can I say one more thing oh Absolut I'm looking at the clock Pi there it's all right okay I'm in charge here good yeah you are back back to fame you know in the first four chapters of First

Corinthians Paul is mainly dealing with pride pride in intellect and pride in oratory and people were boasting in their favorite teachers for vicarious praise I'm of Paul I'm of Apollos I'm of sephus and you know what Paul's final word against that kind of pride is he said why do you boast in men for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or sephus or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's so alongside the sovereignty of of God you say

I own the [Applause] world I'm I'm I own the world and John Newton just nailed it and helped me so much years ago when he told the story of a man who is headed for a city to inherit a million dollars and he was in a carriage oldfashioned and one mile outside the city The Carriage broke down and and he gets out and he has to walk he has to walk a whole mile to inherit a million dollars and all the way into the city he's complaining my Carriage is broken my Carriage is broken that's

the way you live and I we complain and We complain and Paul would say you own everything it's just a Vapor's breath just like that a Vapor's breath and you come into your inheritance a fellow air with Christ forever so those two things in answer to your question about how not to be paralyzed in a world that's going to hell in a hand basket namely Sovereign God in your boat and he's totally for you and he's proven it by the death of his son Jesus amen yeah I cling to the psalmist in those moments Psalm

119 says God is good and he does good what a comfort in times of suffering and trial we do two more questions oh really yeah two more don't you worry about that time uh two more brief questions yeah okay you clearly love Noel like you're just deeply in love with her which is awesome I wrote a poem for her last week I write a poem for my wife on every anniversary and on every birthday joh my wife is right over here and she's hearing you say this and I might have to write some poems got

on my phone right here yeah okay and you've called her a radical risk-taking go anywhere for Jesus woman she sounds amazing he amazing but Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 if you can be single be single so knowing what you know now why wouldn't you go back to 22 and just be single the rest of your life oh Genesis 2:8 and 1 Corinthians 7 duke it out in your life yeah so Genesis 2:18 says it is not good for man to be alone so he made a helper fit suitable for him so the normal creation

pattern is marriage that's normal it's good it's beautiful it's the way you fulfill the mandate to fill the Earth and and a lot of other things the the main thing is representing Christ and the church in marriage when Paul says in in Ephesians 5:32 having talked about the man as the head and the woman as the body in the marriage this refers to Christ and the church he says having quoted uh Genesis 2:24 and so what we know is that God did not look around the world for an analogy from what Jesus and the church

would be like and say oh marriage would work let's use marriage as an analogy it's just the other way around yeah he knew from eternity he was going to marry his son to the church and he created marriage to show it so this is massive I mean marriage is massive and the way the way people treat it today is just flat out Blasphemous I mean where in the world is anybody your age who believes in keeping promises anymore I hope you do for better for worse for richer for poorer in sickness and in health till

death to us part you mean that I I don't know if you'll even say that but if you don't say it and you don't mean it you won't last probably because the whole culture says it doesn't matter they don't think marriage counts for anything so marriage is Big that's all to justify my marriage right I suppose you said why wouldn't you remain single so first Corinthians 7 Paul says I wish you were all like me those who are married have to give a lot of attention to the concerns of their wives or husbands and and

those who are single can be utterly devoted to the Lord and I thought a lot about that and I've thought a lot about it since that's just totally true I must take into consideration another human being with every decision I make yeah that's very limiting and it's intended to be and in that limitation I represent a Christlike husband which is a beautiful thing if I do it right and she represents an obedient church if she does it right and it portrays to the world a a beautiful thing so it's a it's a beautiful thing that's

happening it's not like singleness over against something non- beautiful and non-significant however there are often times I just want to throw myself into something and I think I better check with Noel and she's not at that level there so um I think the answer is as you try to discern Paul call Paul says each has his own gift do I Lord Jesus have the gift of of singleness and celibacy and cacy by the way that is being a virgin till you die is a glorious thing and we know that because Jesus was one and right

now goodness you can you can tune in the New York Times or any other major news thing and there are these big conversations among Cutting Edge 20s somethings about virginity that's been going on a long time that is the call on your life life if you're not married and if somebody says man you can't even be human if you haven't had sex come on I've had God say that to me you are you kidding me you can't even be fully human if you don't express that part of your reality and i' say Jesus did and

I'll take Jesus kind of humanity over your kind of humanity any day amen so you do not have to have sex to be fully human okay I'm getting sidetracked here all very good stuff um the gift the gift of celibacy the gift of um singleness you will discover by the Providence of God Amen am if you are not led into a marital relationship he expects you to be chased and single and serve him joyfully so maybe the the the last thing to say on this is don't come to God and say if you don't give

me a husband or if you don't give me a wife I'm going to be miserable God don't want to hear that because it's not true if he's your treasure you go to him and you say Lord as I know myself there's so much in me that love to give myself away to a man or woman who's Godly and holy and Link arms together to serve you together in missions or whatever whatever the calling is I would love to do it but God you are Supreme you are The Treasure of my life I will take whatever

you've given me and I will rejoice and be a happy productive single person or a happy productive married person amen amen last question uh Lord will on January 11th you'll be 78 years old praise God for your life we pray that he gives you many more years of faithfulness to him and encouraging others to know him and love him but if this is your last cross conference what would you want this group of people to know well everything I've just said um but um I'm going to if this is the end if this is the

really the end I'll end on one of the most important discoveries I made in in the fall of 1968 and that is that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him I call that Christian heathenism and it's important because at your age one of my biggest battles was trying to figure out how my irresistible desire for happiness fit in to God's passion for his glory my parents taught me Johnny whatever you do whether you eat or drink do all to the glory of God I knew that but I had this

sneaking suspicion that to want to be happy not to mention pursuing happiness was defective it was defective and it cramped My Worship it cramped my obedience it cramped my relationships because I thought when Jesus said whoever would come after me let him deny himself meant deny himself happiness if he meant that then psalm 37:4 is a command to sin delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart or in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand are Pleasures forever more and here was the here was the solution

and that's why I say it was a great discovery if in fact that's true God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him then those two are never in competition my highest and longest happiness highest and longest happiness and God's glory are never at odds ever which means I can say to 10,000 students you should live this leave this place utterly totally devoted to the pursuit of your happiness as long as it's the big biggest happiness and the longest happiness like don't settle for 80 years like who cares about 80 years

of happiness if if you go to hell and don't settle for 90% proof happiness insist on 100% forever and and the Bible is really clear where that's found it's found in God and it's found in the Overflow of the enjoyment of God onto other people especially the Nations who don't know anything about this Joy amen thank you brother always enjoy talking with you thank you for the time the conversation would you just pray for this group now as we as we end our day father I pray that if if anything that U I have said

is unbiblical or imbalanced that you'd correct it in the minds of these students and leaders and if if anything has been true and faithful to your word that it would by your spirit be confirmed I pray that for all the speakers and I pray that you would unleash on this conference a sense of expectancy and prayer and hope that would in fact result in a thousand of these 10,000 students feeling I believe God is leading me to be a goer I ask this in jesus' name amen amen thank you brother