What Podcasts Do You Listen To?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Several of our most astute

00:00:06.960 | Ask Pastor John podcast listeners

00:00:08.720 | picked up on your podcast reference

00:00:10.280 | in the John MacArthur episode, episode 214.

00:00:12.800 | David, one such astute listener, asks this.

00:00:16.400 | I'm curious to know what other podcasts

00:00:18.360 | you subscribe to using your Downcast app.

00:00:21.840 | So Pastor John, what podcasts do you listen to?

00:00:24.360 | - Okay, so I just got out my phone here.

00:00:27.960 | Let me get it.

00:00:29.760 | And I click on the app called Downcast.

00:00:34.720 | And I'll read you my top, here's at the top.

00:00:38.440 | These are the ones that are unplayed.

00:00:40.780 | 'Cause that's what comes first in the list.

00:00:44.960 | Okay, there's albertmuller.com in the briefing.

00:00:48.520 | Ask Pastor John.

00:00:49.840 | (laughing)

00:00:51.960 | No, I don't listen to it very often,

00:00:53.280 | but sometimes I check and see how you do these things.

00:00:55.840 | The next one is Bethlehem Baptist Sermons.

00:00:59.320 | That's Jason, my successor,

00:01:01.000 | and I love to listen to Jason preach.

00:01:02.900 | The next one is Brookhills Audio.

00:01:04.980 | So that's David Platt's sermons.

00:01:07.720 | The next one is Cannon Wired.

00:01:09.880 | That's sermons from Doug Wilson.

00:01:13.280 | The next one is Sinclair B. Ferguson Sermon Audio.com.

00:01:17.920 | The next one is the Gospel Coalition podcast.

00:01:20.440 | The next one is Grace to You, pulpit podcast.

00:01:23.800 | That's John MacArthur.

00:01:25.280 | The next one is Poem of the Day.

00:01:28.400 | They just put up a different poem every day

00:01:30.240 | from poetry.com or wherever it comes from

00:01:32.940 | to give me a taste of poetry

00:01:34.600 | whenever I choose to listen to those.

00:01:36.560 | The next one is Renewing Your Mind with R.C. Sproul.

00:01:40.120 | The next one is sermons,

00:01:42.360 | University Reform Church of Lansing.

00:01:44.680 | That's Kevin DeYoung.

00:01:47.200 | And then comes Theology Refresh from Desiring God.

00:01:50.720 | Then comes Truth for Life broadcast, Alistair Begg.

00:01:54.240 | And here's the ones that are empty.

00:01:56.440 | C.S. Lewis Review podcast.

00:01:58.480 | They hardly ever put anything up,

00:02:00.240 | but they did for a while.

00:02:01.720 | Carl F. Henry Center for Theological,

00:02:03.800 | it's a dot, dot, dot, I can't even finish,

00:02:07.300 | but it's a podcast from Trinity

00:02:09.800 | from the Carl F. H. Henry Center.

00:02:12.720 | Desiring God Authors Online is there.

00:02:15.680 | Let's see, that's probably enough.

00:02:20.280 | The rest of them are kind of really weird poetry things

00:02:25.400 | that never get posted to anymore.

00:02:28.000 | So those are the ones that are there,

00:02:30.680 | but here's something just as important.

00:02:32.920 | I follow about 100 people on Twitter.

00:02:35.280 | One of my goals in following people on Twitter

00:02:38.640 | is that I try to choose enough people

00:02:42.600 | who are discerning that they are constantly feeding me

00:02:47.600 | the best articles, audio, video.

00:02:52.600 | And so when I find a tweet,

00:02:56.000 | like say somebody says,

00:02:57.520 | "Don Carson on the relationship

00:03:00.080 | "between the Great Commission and the Second Coming."

00:03:04.800 | Okay, I say, "Oh, I wanna hear what Don has to say

00:03:06.620 | "about that, 'cause cross-conference is coming up."

00:03:08.600 | And so I email myself that tweet.

00:03:11.720 | 'Cause right then, I don't have time.

00:03:13.560 | You know, I'm just going somewhere or doing something,

00:03:15.880 | I don't have time to listen to this now.

00:03:17.260 | So I click and I email myself that tweet,

00:03:19.980 | and later, when I have time,

00:03:22.220 | and if I have time, I don't watch all of them,

00:03:24.520 | I'll just click through to that and watch it.

00:03:27.560 | So Twitter is as important to me as a podcast feeder,

00:03:32.560 | because it's broader,

00:03:37.100 | and I can't choose everything that's out there.

00:03:40.780 | And it would be important for people to know how I do this,

00:03:45.000 | 'cause I don't have a lot of time to listen to stuff.

00:03:48.920 | I run outside three mornings a week.

00:03:53.440 | So that's about, given the run and the cool down,

00:03:56.920 | that's about a 45-minute block of time.

00:03:59.000 | So I can listen to three times 45 minutes,

00:04:04.000 | usually in a week, just by jogging.

00:04:06.760 | Then on the off days, I might do some calisthenics

00:04:10.400 | or something that don't take as much time,

00:04:11.820 | and listen to a 10-minute something or other

00:04:14.660 | in my exercise time.

00:04:16.500 | Now, what's the point of all this?

00:04:18.900 | I tried to think through, why do I do this?

00:04:23.380 | Isn't this a waste of time?

00:04:25.000 | Aren't you being jerked around by the media?

00:04:28.920 | Here's my three answers.

00:04:31.260 | Number one, I need reminders of what I know

00:04:35.760 | and have forgotten about God and the Bible.

00:04:39.900 | Because Peter said,

00:04:41.320 | Peter said in 2 Peter 1:13,

00:04:45.240 | "I think it is right, as long as I'm in this body,

00:04:48.000 | to stir you up by way of reminder."

00:04:51.160 | Well, amen, Peter.

00:04:53.400 | John Piper leaks, you know?

00:04:56.040 | He just forgets.

00:04:58.240 | And I need for a preacher, and it can be any preacher,

00:05:01.920 | to tell me what I know, and to tell me what I know

00:05:07.480 | with some sense of reality and authenticity.

00:05:10.400 | And that leads to number two.

00:05:13.760 | I need real, live people speaking to me

00:05:18.360 | about their experience with God.

00:05:21.640 | This is what the Psalms are, aren't they?

00:05:23.800 | I mean, the Psalms say things like,

00:05:25.200 | "Whom have I in heaven but you?

00:05:27.480 | There is nothing on earth I desire besides you.

00:05:30.720 | My flesh and my heart may fail,

00:05:33.000 | but God is the strength of my heart."

00:05:34.920 | That's a man talking to me about his walk with God.

00:05:38.880 | And I'm listening to him, and I'm saying,

00:05:40.280 | "Yes, yes, please, God, I want that."

00:05:44.320 | So I want people to do that for me.

00:05:46.880 | I wanna listen to pastors who've walked with God.

00:05:49.880 | I don't want them only to tell me what they've seen.

00:05:53.360 | I want them to tell me what they're savoring.

00:05:55.920 | Talk to me about what you're experiencing of God,

00:05:58.600 | because I get stirred up that way,

00:06:00.360 | and I wanna join you in that experience.

00:06:02.880 | So that's my second incentive

00:06:04.880 | in going after some of these videos and audios.

00:06:07.520 | And the third thing is, I need to learn.

00:06:10.300 | Second Peter also says,

00:06:13.280 | "Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus."

00:06:18.280 | And if you say to me, "Well, read a book, you know,

00:06:20.840 | and you'll learn."

00:06:21.920 | I say, "Well, I can't read while I'm jogging,

00:06:24.020 | thank you very much, and I can't read while I'm driving."

00:06:27.360 | So I'm basically, I'm trying to obey Ephesians 5:16, right?

00:06:32.360 | Redeem the time for the days are evil.

00:06:37.480 | Redeem the kairos for the days of evil.

00:06:40.680 | And redeem there is purchase it, grab it, don't waste it.

00:06:44.280 | God has given us technology as a way of redeeming time.

00:06:49.280 | And isn't it sad, Tony,

00:06:51.400 | that so many have turned it into a time waster?

00:06:54.480 | So my closing exhortation to myself and to everybody is,

00:06:59.480 | use your phone or your iPod or whatever you got,

00:07:05.320 | use it as a time redeemer, not a time waster.

00:07:10.320 | - Amen, well, it sounds like I need to get to work

00:07:12.880 | and record some new authors on the line podcast

00:07:15.440 | for your playlist.

00:07:16.400 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:07:18.240 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:07:20.480 | Please email your questions to us

00:07:21.680 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org

00:07:23.560 | and visit us online at desiringgod.org

00:07:25.840 | to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,

00:07:27.520 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

00:07:29.960 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, thanks for listening.

00:07:32.240 | (upbeat music)

00:07:34.820 | (upbeat music)

00:07:37.400 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Podcasts Do You Listen To?

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