John Piper - What is the Recession For?

Today, I came across a sermon by John Piper entitled "What is the Recession For?". Piper list 5 reasons for God's purposes specifically that I hope you will find helpful as you struggle with economic difficulties. Here is the exert:

Now what are some of God’s purposes in this recession? I will mention five:

1. He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
2. He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
3. He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
4. He intends to advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
5. He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

...God sends recessions to his people to pull up the roots of our joy from the pleasures of the world and sink those roots into the pleasures of the glory of his grace. Here’s he clearest recessionary text about this in the Bible—2 Corinthians 8:1-2. It describes the roots of the joy of the Macedonian believers in their “recession.”
...But vastly more important than that is where your treasure is—where your heart is. Are you like the Macedonians whose joy—in times of “recession”—was invincible because it was rooted in the grace of God? May God open our eyes to glory of his grace. When he does, the last purpose for the recession that I will mention will come true.

"What is the Recession For?" (Audio)

"What is the Recession For?" (Video)