A recent Podcast episode of desiringGod.com looked back to a sermon preached in 2009 to gain insight on what God's purposes were during a national financial crisis.
Pastor John, the founder and teacher of desiringGod.com, preached this sermon titled, "What Are God's Purposes in the Recession For? Some of God's Purposes" hoping to share God's great purpose when Americans were starting to get weary from the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
This 2009 sermon is perfect to go back to and listen to and find a rock-solid foundation during these very uncertain times that we are facing today in 2020.
Pastor John Piper started off his sermon with a humbling prayer, then (reminds us that everything that is happening and whether we can understand it or not, God has permitted and designed it all.)
"God is sovereign, which is why you can speak in terms of purposes. God is sovereign over these things. He foresees them all. He causes or permits them all. And when he foresees and he causes or permits, it is always by design."
Our human understanding of God's purposes may never be fully correct until we get to heaven.
"God is up to billions and billions of things that you don't know about, I don't know about, and we won't know about till we get to heaven," said Pastor John.
God's purposes may be infinite but for the moment being, Pastor John Piper lists 5 purposes of God in Financial Trouble:
God intends in this recession to expose hidden sin and to bring us to repentance and cleansing. God intends to wake us up, "The West in particular" he states--to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world, where they always have mega recession and nothing else. God intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace, not in our goods; in his mercy not in our money; in his worth, not in our wealth. God intends to advance his saving mission in the world and spread the gospel like wildfire and grow his church precisely at a time when they have the least resources to do it. God intends for the church to care for its hurting members, and to grow in the gift of love so that no one is in need in the church of Jesus Christ.
Pastor John Piper recently published a short print book of 112 pages and an audiobook of 2 hours and 6 minutes concerning Christian faith during the COVID-19 pandemic in "Coronavirus and Christ" which can be accessed for free at his site, desiringGod.com.
