Audio Transcript

How do I know if my good deeds are vain — or if they are eternally relevant? Just because we act in ways that look sacrificial to the world does not mean those works are virtuous. It’s an essential point made by Jesus when he contrasts the Pharisee and the tax collector. There he introduces us to a very moral teacher, a man who is not an extortioner, not unjust, not a scandalous sinner, not an adulterer. No. In fact, he fasted twice a week and tithed off everything he got (as we are told in Luke 18:11–12). And it was all vain. All of it. And yet, said Jesus, our own righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). So there’s a sacrifice worth noting here, even if it’s proven vain in the end.

How do we escape the Pharisee’s vain sacrifice? It’s the question Pastor John took up in one of his early sermons, way back in 1980, specifically answering the question: How do we do good works so that God gets the glory? Here’s the answer from rookie pastor, John Piper, 42 years ago, just a couple weeks into his new pastorate.

It’s possible to be a kind of do-gooder, a kind of philanthropist, a benefactor, who (for one reason or another) uses his or her money to alleviate suffering, and not even believe in God, let alone do it all for his glory. And that creates a kind of problem. Can’t just be merely good deeds then, can it, that gives God glory?

When Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” he didn’t just mean the bodily motions through which you go in doing good deeds. He meant you — your attitude, your motive, the spirit that you exude in those good deeds. That’s what it means to let your light shine. There is a way to do good deeds that will bring glory to God, and doing it that way, in that spirit, will be the shining of the light that Jesus is talking about, which is why I entitled this sermon, “How to Do Good So God Gets the Glory,” not just “Doing Good So God Gets the Glory.”

Don’t content yourself that you have done many good deeds in your life. It might be a pile of rubbish in God’s sight. There is such a thing as works and Phariseeism. So we must ask the next question, which comes from 1 Peter 4:10–11, how shall we do good deeds? How shall we serve so that not we, but God, gets the glory?

In the Strength He Provides

Probably no other book in the New Testament, besides the book of James, reflects a greater acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus than 1 Peter.

For example, in 1 Peter 2:12, you have a very loose quotation of the very text we’ve been looking at, Matthew 5:16. It says there, “Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles so that when they speak against you as evil-doers, they might see your good deeds and give glory to God on the day of visitation.” It’s the same idea exactly as Jesus’s teaching because Peter, of course, was a very close apostle.

But in 1 Peter 4:10–11, we have probably the clearest word in the Bible about how it is we must do good deeds if God is to get glory,

As each has received a gift, employ it for one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever speaks, let him speak as one who utters oracles of God. Whoever renders service, let him render it as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies in order that in everything God might be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

“For God to get glory in our lives, the good we do must be done in dependence upon the strength which he gives.”

There is no clearer answer in the Bible to the question, how we shall serve or do good deeds so that God gets glory. And the answer, very simply, is that, for God to get glory in our lives, the good we do must be done in dependence upon the strength which he gives and not our own. Not mere good deeds, but good deeds done in a spirit of humble reliance and joyful dependence on the provision of God.

The Proud Servant

I want you to picture two people this afternoon. These two people are trying to decide whether to come to F.A.C.T. tomorrow night (Fun All Cleaning Together). Going to clean up the church.

Now, one of these fellas is a younger man and he’s strong and virile, works a lot around the church. He’s pondering, “Shall I go or not to help? Oh, I suppose I’ll go. Might be worth a few brownie points with the leadership. They might serve snacks. Besides, I know how to do all that stuff really well. I can give a few pointers and that’s always fun.” And so he comes and he grumbles about the tools that are there, and he criticizes the way things have been planned, and he talks on and on about his experience. He gets a lot done, does a lot more than lots of other people, gets a lot of corners spick and span. A lot of employers would go after that man because many employers are only interested in productivity and efficiency.

“Every piece of resolve that we can muster to do good is a gift of God.”

God looks on that man’s heart and his assessment of his contribution is this, “I got no glory from that effort because it was not done in reliance upon me. It was not done in a spirit of humble trust and joyful acceptance of life and gift from me.”

The Humble Servant

Then there’s another person. Now, this person’s a little bit older. He’s worked a lot in the church too, but he’s been ill for a while now. The knees are real stiff and give a lot of pain. Arthritis, I suppose. And he wants to come. He would love to come. He’s always enjoyed working at the church, and he never made any big to-do about inconvenience or sacrifice or any of that stuff. He was just there putting in the hours.

He says, “O Lord, I would just love to be there. Maybe I could just encourage some of the down-hearted. Maybe I could just keep the coffee warm, but it would be sure great to be there with your people in your house.” He makes a special effort and praise. “Just this once, let me wake up in the morning with no pain in these knees, and I’ll go,” and low and behold, he wakes up with no pain.

He gets on the phone to Flossy, “I’m coming down there. I’m going to do whatever you need done.” And so he’s there, and he works, and he doesn’t get so much done because his knees start to ache a little bit, but he’s there with bells on. He exudes a kind of joy and gratitude for life, and everybody’s attention through him is appointed to God from whom he has acknowledged receiving this help. His whole bearing and his whole demeanor exude that God is getting the credit for his being there, and God is getting the credit for every little swipe of the rag or push of the broom. That’s what it means to let your light shine (and not just to be there), right?

What Have You Not Received?

But here’s the hook. Every single one of us is in that category, not just the guy with bad knees. Every single one of us, all the strength we have is from God. All the fibers of our brain and our intelligence are a gift from God. Every piece of resolve that we can muster to do good is a gift of God. “What do you have that you did not receive,” Paul said to the Corinthians, “If you received it as a gift, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Why do you get haughty and arrogant and braggy? We are all crippled apart from the grace of God — and worse than crippled, apart from his sustenance. We would degenerate into nothing or into devils without his grace.

Oh, how differently we would serve and do good if this truth would hit us with all its force: how utterly dependent we are on God for life and breath and everything. We would not boast in our achievements. We would not criticize the speck in our brother’s eye. We would not grumble about inconveniences, and we would not be presumptuous as if existence itself could be taken for granted. It cannot. A person who truly owns up to the fact that he exists by the word of God, and that all his strength and moral resolve comes from God, is going to be a humble and lowly and grateful and joyful person in all the good deeds that he does. And in serving that way, God, and not himself, will get glory.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6)

The first and last psalms tell us a great deal about what God wants us to see and hear in all the psalms. The first is quoted far more often than the last:

Blessed is the man     who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor stands in the way of sinners,     nor sits in the seat of scoffers;but his delight is in the law of the Lord,     and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1–2)

Psalm 1 tells us that the happiest and most fruitful people, anywhere on earth and at any point in history, will be those who delight most in the words of God. The words of this book — and every other book in the Bible — are meant to be read slowly, wrestled with, and savored. And not just for a few minutes each day, but throughout the day. The psalm is an invitation into the rich and rewarding life of meditation.

If the first psalm tells us how to hear from God, though, the last psalm tells us how to respond. Humble, wise, happy souls let God have the first word, but encountering him eventually draws words out of them. Like the disciples, we “cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). How does God bring 150 psalms to an end? With a clear charge and refrain: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”

The Closing Psalm

Anyone can discern what the last psalm wants us to do in response to what God has said. All thirteen lines make the same point: “Praise the Lord!”

“God doesn’t minimize or neglect our suffering, but his goodness to us always outshines the trials he hands us.”

No matter where we are, and how bleak or difficult our life becomes, we always have reason to praise our God — to stop and worship him for who he is and what he is done. “Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!” (Psalm 150:2). Our reasons for praising him — his mighty deeds and his glory over all — always eclipse and outweigh what we suffer, and all the more so now that Christ has come, died, and risen. God doesn’t minimize or neglect our suffering, but his goodness to us always outshines the trials he hands us. And so the psalmist can say to every one of us, at every moment of our lives, “Praise the Lord!”

The psalms, however, are not a simple chorus repeated over and over again, but a symphony, filled with as many experiences and emotions as humans endure and feel. The five books that make up Psalms really are a master class in human adversity.

Praise Through Heartache

When we think of the psalms, we might be tempted to think they’re simple, positive, and repetitive, but they give voice to the entire spectrum of sorrow and suffering.

Do you feel abandoned by God? The psalms know what you feel: “O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 88:14).

Is some fear threatening to consume you? The psalms know what you feel: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:3–4).

Has someone tried to make your life miserable? The psalms know what you feel: “More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies” (Psalm 69:4).

Do you need wisdom about a hard situation or decision? The psalms know what you feel: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:33–34).

Have you ever been betrayed by someone you love? The psalms know what you feel: “It is not an enemy who taunts me — then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me — then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend” (Psalm 55:12–13).

And through mountains and valleys, through trials and triumphs, through ecstasy and agony, we hear one common, beautiful thread: praise. In the throes of fear, praise. In the vulnerability of uncertainty, praise. In the darkness of doubt, praise. Even in the heartache of betrayal, praise. The praise doesn’t always sound the same, but we still hear it, in each and every circumstance. And so the book ends, after every high and every low, with a call: “Praise him. . . . Praise him. . . . Praise him.” Can you praise him where you are right now?

With Whatever You Have

We might be tempted to overlook the verses in Psalm 150:3–5:

Praise him with trumpet sound;     praise him with lute and harp!Praise him with tambourine and dance;     praise him with strings and pipe!Praise him with sounding cymbals;     praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

There aren’t as many lutes and harps and tambourines in most modern worship. The specific instruments are not the point, however. The point is that God deserves more than our words.

“The purpose of breathing is praise.”

He does deserve our words: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” God made lungs and vocal cords and oxygen, ultimately, so that we could use them to worship him. The purpose of breathing is praise. But words fall short of his greatness. We feel this when we pray and sing, don’t we? It feels true, and yet so inadequate. We should feel that way. The inadequacy of our worship reminds us God is always better than we can grasp or express, and it drives us to find more creative ways to tell him so.

We might pick up a trumpet or lute or harp. We might shake a tambourine or break into dancing. We might slam a couple of cymbals together. Even more than instruments, though, we “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). We make praise with our lives — with our decisions, our conversations, our spending, our time.

So, in whatever circumstances God has given you, and with whatever energy and resources he has given you, praise the Lord for who he is and for all he’s done for you.

Pastor. Elder. Overseer. Three terms for one biblical office. When modern Christians refer to their church leaders, we tend to use the first the most, the second next, and the third hardly at all. And yet all three terms are helpful for us in understanding the office and task.

“If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1). And what is the noble task? The apostle Peter provides one answer near the end of his first letter. There he charges the elders of the church to “shepherd [or pastor, used as a verb] the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight” (1 Peter 5:2). Thus, the elders of the church shepherd or pastor God’s flock by exercising oversight. And unpacking the meaning of oversight in the context of shepherding gives us a crucial description of God’s call for every elder.

Sight Plus Responsibility

What, then, does it mean to shepherd? The biblical authors intend for us to consider the work of actual shepherds and actual sheep.

Shepherds care for the sheep. Shepherds lead the flock and feed the flock. Shepherds guide the flock to green pastures and still waters, and they guard and protect the flock from bears and wolves and roaring lions. They are attentive to the health and safety of their sheep. If the sheep begin to look sickly, shepherds examine their diet. If they come down with a disease, shepherds bring medicine to heal. If a sheep falls in a crack in the earth, a shepherd pulls him out and sets him back on the path. If a lion attacks, a shepherd grabs his rod and staff and uses it to defend his sheep, even at great cost to himself.

“To exercise oversight means that when you see, you are responsible to do something about it.”

We gain further clarity if we consider Peter’s additional phrase — “exercising oversight.” We might ask, What’s the difference between sight and oversight? Oversight includes sight. You can’t exercise oversight if you can’t see clearly and understand accurately. But oversight is more than merely sight. Oversight is sight plus responsibility. To exercise oversight means that when you see, you are responsible to do something about it. You can’t just see; you must also “see to it.”

Failure to See

We gain further clarity on the task of oversight when we consider the ways elders might fail to do it. If oversight is sight plus responsibility to act, this means that there are, broadly speaking, two main ways that pastors can fail.

First, they can fail to see clearly. They didn’t recognize when the disease was spreading in their flock. They didn’t see the pack of wolves creeping over the hill, or were deceived by wolves in sheepskins, or mistook real sheep for wolves. They didn’t see that the water was polluted. Failure to see, failure to discern is a failure to shepherd well.

In the church context, elders might fail to see the false teaching that is spreading like gangrene among their sheep. In particular, deceptive teaching can enter into a community through any of its sub-ministries: men’s ministry, women’s ministry, children and youth ministry, counseling ministry.

Alternatively, elders might fail to see destructive patterns of behavior that are beginning to take root among their people. Whether it’s gossip and slander or ungodly suspicion, domineering leadership or passive leadership, blaming victims or weaponizing victims — elders fail to exercise oversight if they fail to see when false beliefs and destructive patterns of behavior are spreading among their people.

Failure to Act

Second, though, elders can fail to act. They see the disease, but they don’t wisely apply the medicine. They see the wolves, but they cower in fear. They see the polluted water, but they don’t move the flock to better pastures. Failure to act is also a failure to shepherd well the flock of God.

In the church context, elders might fail to counter false teaching with the truth. Rather than patiently correcting error, they might coddle it and tolerate it. Or conversely, they might reactively escalate theological conflict without understanding the appeal of the error to their particular people. They might make mountains out of molehills (or molehills out of mountains), or botch the timing with impatience or sluggishness.

In confronting destructive patterns of behavior, elders might fail to speak with soberminded clarity and sincere love. They might avoid confrontation out of fear that some sheep might “vote with their feet” and find another church. They might give in to the impulse to say, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. In each of these situations, elders, even when they see the danger clearly, might lack the nerve to act wisely and intentionally to address the challenges before them. And in doing so, they fail to exercise oversight.

Subtle Temptation

Some pastors might fall prey to a subtle form of the failure to see and the failure to act. These pastors see clearly and are prepared to act with courage and compassion to address what they see, but they aren’t attentive to the particular needs, cares, issues, dangers, temptations, and tendencies of their flock. Their eyes look far and wide for danger, but rarely near and present.

Peter’s call is specific. It’s not just “shepherd the flock of God”; it’s “shepherd the flock of God that is among you.” Pastors are called to shepherd their people. Not other people’s people. Not other shepherds’ sheep. Pastors are called to exercise oversight over those in their charge. In the age of instant news and social media, it’s easy to miss the importance of this. It’s easy for pastors to be concerned about dangers to the health of flocks over there, on the other side of town or the other side of the country. In fact, you can actually build a flock (numerically, at least) around pointing out the dangers to other flocks while ignoring the dangers to your own flock.

“Pastors are called to shepherd their people. Not other people’s people. Not other shepherds’ sheep.”

It’s easy to be the sort of shepherd who runs around with a fire extinguisher when there’s a flood in your church, because you’re far more attentive to the dumpster fires online that are afflicting churches in another state or another denomination. But wise and faithful shepherds are attentive to the needs, cares, issues, problems, dangers, temptations, and tendencies of the flock that is among them.

More Eyes and More Hands

In the face of the dangers to fail to see or fail to act, God has given us two great helps. The first is a plurality of elders.

As is the case in every New Testament mention of local-church elders, Peter addresses elders in the plural. When you have a plurality of elders, you can see more and act better. No single shepherd has 360-degree vision. No single shepherd can pay attention to all of the macro-dangers and micro-threats — but a team of shepherds can.

Some shepherds can scan the horizon to the east, while others scan the horizon to the west. Some can direct their attention to distant threats — the storm rolling in, the pack of wolves settling into the valley. Others can direct their attention inward — the condition of the pasture, the health of individual sheep. When elders shepherd the flock of God among them together, they are able to see more and act with greater wisdom and insight than if they saw and acted alone.

How to Pray for Overseers

The second help is prayer. Recognizing the call to exercise oversight and the two potential failures provides two good ways for us to pray.

First, we can pray that our pastors would clearly see what they need to see about their church — that they would know the needs, the dangers, the tendencies, the temptations of the people in their congregation, in their particular city, at this time in history. If there’s a fire in a church across the country, and a flood in their own church, we want pastors who bring sand bags and life rafts, not bucket brigades and fire hoses.

Second, we can pray that, having seen clearly what they need to see about their flock, the pastors would have the courage and compassion to act together with wisdom to do what is best for the sheep, especially through their teaching. Once they’ve seen what needs to be seen, what needs to be said? What needs to be done? And who needs to say it — and when and how often? Who needs to do it — and how and when?

Exercising oversight well as pastors requires heart and nerve, courage and compassion, plurality and responsibility, teaching and prayer.