“Everybody talks about living and worshiping to the glory of God. And I find that something now is missing in the heart of it and the mind of it unless they are really happy about the fact that the most God-centered person in the universe is God. That God loves His glory more than He loves them. If we are only God-centered because He is man-centered, we are man-centered! But if we are God-centered because we want to get on board with God’s God-centeredness, then God is God and we are not. God chose us to the praise of the glory of His grace. God has from eternity reached out and made us His own that He might be made much of. God chose you for God. Isaiah 43:6 “bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who I created for My glory.” You were made for God’s glory. There’s no doubt about why you exist. You exist to make God look good like He really is, that’s why you’re on planet earth. To draw attention to the magnificence of God, you were created for that, to the glory and praise of God. Oh, if we could just remember the beginning of sentences when we get to the end, our whole lives would be different. Christ suffered and died on the cross to vindicate the righteousness of God because God had passed over so many sins. Get that? Hardly anybody in America gets that. What the cross was designed to solve is the unrighteousness of God in forgiving sinners. You know its unrighteous to free rapists and murderers and say, ‘Oh, let it go.’ The whole bible says it is an abomination to justify the wicked. This is unjust to let off so many criminals that fill this room who rage against the living God or are indifferent to God. He kills it, punishes it, He hates it, He pours out wrath upon it, He condemns it. ‘It’ is called ‘Jesus crucified’.” - John Piper (transcribed from "Real"; a Sermon Jam from relevantrevolution.com)

“God calls a person to Christ by bringing them into contact with the gospel of Jesus Christ and then making their dead hearts alive so that they hear the gospel as irresistibly true and beautiful.

God calls a person to Christ by bringing them into the hearing, or the exposure or contact with the gospel (it could be a tract, it could be radio talk, it could be a sermon, it could be the Bible); he brings them into contact with the Word of God in the gospel of Christ Crucified and risen and He uses that word, in and through it, to make their dead, unbelieving, hostile hearts awaken and come alive so that they hear and see the gospel of Christ as irresistibly true and beautiful.” John Piper “All things for Good, Part 3a”, Desiring God Radio 3/28/07