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I ran across this quote from John Piper at the DG blog today.

Many people speak of receiving Christ in a way that does not require a new birth. They do not receive him as a display of the all-satisfying God. They receive him as sin-forgiver (because they don’t want guilt), rescuer from hell (because they don’t want to go there), healer (because they don’t want to be sick), protector (because they value safety), prosperity-giver (because they love wealth), creator (because they prefer a personal God), even Lord of history (because they value order), but not supremely and infinitely valuable as who he is – the most wonderful, satisfying, all-glorious Person who ever was or will be. - John Piper

What shall we say to this? How many people think they have been converted because they love what Christ has to offer, but prefer as their supreme treasure something or someone else more?

Acts 17:24-25

24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,^[a] 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

From this text we can see that God does not need us. I once had a non Christian friend say to me he could not believe in a God who needed our worship. I believe in a very profound sense he was right. God does not need our worship, but he does deserve it. We on the other hand do not deserve as fallen sinners the right to worship an infinitely Holy, Good God, but we desperately need to worship God, we where created for that very purpose. Because of what Jesus has done for us in His blood we can come to God for the one thing we where created to do. To bring Him glory by worshiping Him as our supreme Joy. God does not need our worship but he deserves it, we don’t deserve to worship God but we desperately need to worship Him.

Thanks be to King Jesus that he solved the most difficult issue in the universe. God gets the Glory, and we get the joy of beholding His glory.

What is the pre-eminent passion in God’s heart? What is God’s greatest pleasure? In what does God take supreme delight? I want to suggest that the pre-eminent passion in God’s heart is his own glory. God is at the center of his own affections. The supreme love of God’s life is God. God is pre-eminently committed to the fame of his name. God is himself the end for which God created the world. Better, still, God’s immediate goal in all he does is his own glory. God relentlessly and unceasingly creates, rules, orders, directs, speaks, judges, saves, destroys and delivers in order to make known who He is and to secure from the whole of the universe the praise, honor and glory of which He and He alone is ultimately and infinitely worthy. - Sam Storms

You can find the full text this quote was taken from here.

There is no death of sin without the death of Christ. - John Owen

A great post on why we get stuck in sin. We must have our hearts and minds transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the message of the gospel. Until that happens we will be stuck in the endless suicidal spiral of idol worship. I have heard John Piper say many times. Sin gets its power by a promise to make us happier than God can. All sin has at its root unbelief.

http://purplecellar.blogspot.com/2007/04/why-we-get-stuck-in-sin.html

Many will profess a belief in Christ if he promises to save them from the power and penalty of sin. Others will go so far as to profess Him as Lord and try to obey is commands in order to have a clean conscious along with a good reputation. But very few take Him as the supreme treasure of their lives. Simply said, our actions and lifestyle must flow from new desires and delights, decisions are not enough. When Jesus becomes our treasure how we think and act will change. When the root of our affections are transformed by the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit we will bear a different kind of fruit.