We’re Back! — Update from John Piper

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, we're back.

00:00:06.640 | And it just took us about 40 minutes

00:00:08.920 | to get our recording equipment set up.

00:00:11.560 | - That's right, I'm so out of practice.

00:00:13.920 | I didn't even know how to set up Skype anymore.

00:00:16.320 | (laughing)

00:00:17.160 | - It's been a long time.

00:00:18.640 | No, not a problem, we are back.

00:00:20.440 | And that's the important thing

00:00:22.120 | that APJ listeners are gonna wanna hear.

00:00:24.320 | Things are a little bit different.

00:00:26.520 | We're both in our home studios.

00:00:29.000 | My home studio's a little bit different now.

00:00:30.640 | I'm in Phoenix.

00:00:31.480 | - Yeah, it's about a thousand miles away, right?

00:00:32.920 | - It was an 1800 mile drive.

00:00:34.760 | So yeah, we moved here in July and it's smoking hot.

00:00:39.000 | Glad to be in Phoenix.

00:00:39.960 | You're in Minneapolis.

00:00:40.960 | We're back at it. - It's beautiful here, guy.

00:00:42.720 | It's beautiful.

00:00:43.560 | You didn't have to go down there.

00:00:45.840 | - Well, I'll return that favor in December.

00:00:48.680 | - That's right, I know you will.

00:00:50.360 | Hey, it's minus 40 outside.

00:00:52.120 | - Exactly.

00:00:53.560 | You know, both of us are in our home studios.

00:00:55.400 | This spring, you have had a really busy 2019,

00:00:59.040 | really fruitful.

00:01:00.680 | You traveled this spring to Belfast and to Edinburgh.

00:01:03.720 | And then you went on a 40 day writing leave this summer.

00:01:08.080 | And you and I just returned home from Sing, Nashville.

00:01:11.440 | And our first ever APJ Live event

00:01:14.120 | where we recorded five episodes

00:01:16.400 | in front of like, I think, 2000 listeners or so.

00:01:19.920 | It was just a really amazing experience.

00:01:22.440 | So it seemed to go really well.

00:01:25.760 | You're back now in the studio for a little while.

00:01:27.320 | And actually, by the time this new episode releases,

00:01:30.080 | you'll be on your way out the door again,

00:01:31.960 | this time to minister in Holland and France and Germany.

00:01:35.520 | So, I mean, give us a little update on 2019.

00:01:38.120 | Tell us about your first Europe trip.

00:01:40.760 | How did the book turn out?

00:01:41.960 | And then give us a little preview of what's to come

00:01:43.760 | for your second Europe trip.

00:01:45.480 | - When I think about the summer,

00:01:47.360 | especially the completion of the Providence book

00:01:51.400 | a few days ago,

00:01:53.320 | the answer to the question,

00:01:54.920 | how's the summer going?

00:01:57.600 | Feels like it should be answered from Isaiah 46.

00:02:02.080 | Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

00:02:05.240 | all the remnant of the house of Israel

00:02:07.480 | who have been born by me from before your birth,

00:02:12.040 | carried from the womb,

00:02:14.200 | even to your old age, I am he.

00:02:16.840 | And to gray hairs, I will carry you.

00:02:22.080 | I have made and I will bear, I will carry and will save.

00:02:26.080 | In other words, Tony, I feel about this summer

00:02:29.480 | that I'm being carried.

00:02:31.520 | That's my main sense.

00:02:33.840 | And here's a small parable

00:02:36.000 | that the folks might find encouraging for their lives.

00:02:40.320 | It certainly is for mine, a little parable

00:02:43.160 | of God's carrying Providence

00:02:46.080 | during the writing of the book on Providence.

00:02:50.000 | So I began the 40 day writing leave

00:02:52.960 | about half or two thirds of the way through

00:02:57.600 | what I hoped would be a biblical summary

00:03:02.600 | of the goal and nature and extent of God's Providence.

00:03:07.600 | Those are the three aspects that I came at it.

00:03:10.880 | And that meant I thought I might write maybe this summer

00:03:15.880 | 50,000 words in addition to the 100, 110

00:03:19.160 | that I wrote last summer in these 40 days.

00:03:22.440 | And there was no detailed outline.

00:03:24.560 | It just kind of emerged as I wrote.

00:03:27.600 | You think you want to write a chapter

00:03:30.080 | on how God's Providence works to transform his people

00:03:34.600 | and you end up writing six chapters

00:03:37.000 | on how God works to transform his people.

00:03:40.880 | In other words, the whole project is unpredictable

00:03:45.280 | and you have no idea if it will fit within the 40 days

00:03:50.280 | you've set aside to try to finish it.

00:03:54.080 | So you just, you write as fast as you can

00:03:57.480 | and as carefully as you can in the minutes that you have.

00:04:02.360 | It's like, when I thought of this, it's like watching,

00:04:05.880 | I remember actually watching this live,

00:04:07.880 | the 1989 finish of the Tour de France

00:04:11.960 | where Greg LeMond was 50 seconds

00:04:15.480 | behind the Frenchman Laurent Fignon.

00:04:20.480 | And there was only one leg to go.

00:04:25.400 | And it was a 20 mile, which is almost nothing in this race,

00:04:28.880 | you know, it's 2000 miles long, 20 mile time trial.

00:04:32.640 | Nobody can make up 50 seconds over a world-class rider

00:04:37.040 | in a time trial.

00:04:39.520 | And LeMond says to his teammates and all his technicians,

00:04:44.440 | "I don't want any radio connection in my head at all.

00:04:48.160 | I don't want you to tell me how close I am to him

00:04:50.880 | or anything.

00:04:51.840 | I am going to ride as fast as I can ride.

00:04:56.840 | So there's no point in having an earbud in my ear

00:05:00.760 | since I'm given flat out."

00:05:02.960 | And he beat Fignon by eight seconds.

00:05:07.560 | So he won a 2000 mile race by eight seconds in 1989.

00:05:12.560 | Now that's what these 40 days felt like to me.

00:05:19.000 | I'm not going to wear a microphone in my head,

00:05:21.960 | meaning I'm not going to constantly compute

00:05:25.040 | how many days are left, how many days are left

00:05:26.720 | and can I finish?

00:05:28.160 | I'm just going to go flat out six days a week,

00:05:32.320 | nine, 10 hours a day and let Providence,

00:05:36.480 | finish Providence or not.

00:05:38.840 | And I came to the last day

00:05:41.960 | and I only had the conclusion to write,

00:05:44.800 | which I thought in itself was an absolute miracle.

00:05:47.800 | I came down to Noel for supper time and I said,

00:05:50.560 | "Can you believe this?

00:05:51.760 | Can you believe this?

00:05:53.320 | This is the last writing day.

00:05:55.320 | And I have just a little bit of my conclusion to write

00:05:59.280 | and it's now 7 p.m."

00:06:01.320 | So I eat supper with Noel and I say,

00:06:03.880 | "I'm just going to go up and finish it.

00:06:05.520 | I don't want it hanging over till tomorrow.

00:06:07.200 | I've got other things to do."

00:06:09.240 | And when I went to bed at 12.45 a.m.,

00:06:13.840 | it hit me that I finished this book,

00:06:17.720 | not just on the last day of the writing leave,

00:06:22.720 | but in the last minutes of the last day of the writing leave,

00:06:28.120 | which Tony felt to me like the kiss of Providence.

00:06:33.640 | That's what it felt like.

00:06:35.160 | So vastly more important than such little parable.

00:06:39.760 | I call that a parable for me, 'cause that's all it is.

00:06:42.520 | It's just God giving me this little,

00:06:45.240 | "I'm okay, you're okay, I'm in charge of this.

00:06:47.920 | Don't worry, just work, be faithful

00:06:50.720 | and I'll manage the details of your life."

00:06:54.400 | But vastly more important than the parable of Providence

00:06:58.880 | is the biblical truth of what the Bible teaches

00:07:02.200 | about Providence, which I define

00:07:04.680 | as the purposeful sovereignty of God.

00:07:09.340 | I don't equate sovereignty and Providence

00:07:12.880 | because sovereignty doesn't carry in itself

00:07:16.740 | the meaning of purpose.

00:07:19.320 | You could be sovereign and be whimsical.

00:07:22.600 | But if you say Providence,

00:07:25.740 | you mean that there is now purposefulness in the sovereignty

00:07:30.900 | and the best summary of it is just what?

00:07:35.740 | Four or five verses after,

00:07:38.540 | and this is a sweet Providence as well,

00:07:41.140 | four or five verses after those verses

00:07:44.380 | on being carried to your old age,

00:07:46.860 | where it says in verse nine,

00:07:49.260 | and the others ended, I think, at verse four,

00:07:51.960 | "I am God and there is no other.

00:07:54.780 | I am God and there's none like me,

00:07:57.860 | declaring the end from the beginning.

00:07:59.660 | From ancient times, things not yet done,

00:08:01.300 | saying my counsel shall stand

00:08:05.500 | and I will accomplish all my purpose."

00:08:09.580 | So that's purposeful sovereignty.

00:08:12.260 | So God will carry his people to glory.

00:08:15.700 | He cannot fail and therefore they cannot fail.

00:08:18.900 | All his purposes stand and his purposes include

00:08:22.720 | the smallest birds that fall from the trees

00:08:27.100 | and every hair of your head being numbered

00:08:30.300 | and the appearance and movements of the stars

00:08:32.860 | and the rise and fall of nations

00:08:35.340 | and everybody's life and death

00:08:37.700 | and every living being and salvation of God's elect.

00:08:41.540 | That's the totality of God's purposeful sovereignty.

00:08:46.540 | Those whom he foreknew, he predestined.

00:08:49.020 | Those whom he predestined, he called.

00:08:50.540 | Those whom he called, he justified.

00:08:51.980 | Those whom he justified, he glorified.

00:08:53.980 | None of God's people fail to persevere.

00:08:57.140 | He knows his own.

00:08:58.540 | He saves them to the uttermost.

00:09:00.900 | So you can tell maybe that I love,

00:09:04.100 | I love the providence of God.

00:09:06.940 | I love the truth of the purposeful sovereignty of God.

00:09:11.940 | So I'm on my knees at the end of this summer

00:09:15.460 | with thankfulness for the way God has carried me.

00:09:19.040 | The book won't be out for another year.

00:09:21.960 | That's the way things work.

00:09:24.400 | But here's a connection,

00:09:25.940 | just a word about the international ministry.

00:09:27.900 | You mentioned the past and the future.

00:09:31.060 | So Amsterdam, Paris, and Hamburg

00:09:33.980 | are just around the corner in late September

00:09:37.400 | and early October.

00:09:38.940 | And that'll be our third international trip this year,

00:09:42.500 | which is more than we've ever done before.

00:09:45.420 | We were in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires,

00:09:47.820 | then in Belfast and Edinburgh,

00:09:49.700 | two different trips before this summer.

00:09:53.180 | And this emphasis on the nations

00:09:56.180 | that is making these trips,

00:09:59.140 | which are costly in terms of time.

00:10:01.980 | I could be making a lot of APJs while I'm on the jet.

00:10:05.620 | This emphasis on the nations beyond the US

00:10:09.780 | fits with a heightened consciousness

00:10:13.700 | and a heightened commitment at Desiring God

00:10:16.580 | of what it means to be a web-based ministry

00:10:19.500 | whose reach is to every nation on earth.

00:10:21.380 | And in the last six months,

00:10:22.660 | I asked Scott yesterday if this was accurate,

00:10:25.100 | in the last six months,

00:10:26.500 | about 7.5 million people have tapped

00:10:30.280 | into our online ministries at Desiring God

00:10:33.500 | from outside the United States.

00:10:36.680 | Now that puts us in touch with movements

00:10:41.580 | that love the infallible scriptures,

00:10:44.180 | love the supremacy of a saving Christ,

00:10:47.620 | love the sovereignty of God in salvation,

00:10:50.020 | love the power of joy to sustain love and suffering.

00:10:53.780 | And we feel ourselves,

00:10:56.420 | this is the way I say it and feel it,

00:10:59.060 | I feel myself and us as a ministry

00:11:01.780 | called increasingly to bless those movements

00:11:06.780 | in ways that they find helpful,

00:11:10.620 | not us going to them and telling them what they need,

00:11:13.500 | but them coming to us, having found help,

00:11:17.380 | and our aim is to serve what God is doing,

00:11:22.060 | where people already find what we love

00:11:25.380 | at Desiring God to be helpful,

00:11:27.140 | and then help them press into other groups around them.

00:11:31.460 | So it's been a very fruitful summer.

00:11:36.140 | To top it off with,

00:11:37.420 | you didn't ask about this, but I'll say it anyway.

00:11:40.660 | To top it off with grace and joy,

00:11:42.620 | I get to perform the wedding of my daughter

00:11:45.900 | - Oh, wonderful. - in just a few weeks.

00:11:48.220 | So by the time this plays,

00:11:49.740 | she will be Mrs. Moore, Lord willing.

00:11:53.380 | I look forward to the sovereign arms of God

00:11:58.020 | carrying me and Noel to Europe and back.

00:12:02.140 | But as James says, and it's a big part of this book,

00:12:06.980 | James 4:15, "You ought to say, John Piper,

00:12:11.620 | "if the Lord wills, we will go to Amsterdam,

00:12:15.940 | "Paris, and Hamburg.

00:12:17.420 | "Otherwise, you're arrogant when you talk,

00:12:19.900 | "because I run the world, you don't.

00:12:22.020 | "So if the Lord wills, we will live

00:12:24.020 | "and go to Europe and back.

00:12:25.580 | "If not, we die."

00:12:27.260 | But in God's providence, I love to say with Henry Martin,

00:12:31.580 | we are immortal till our works are done.

00:12:34.740 | - And if the Lord wills,

00:12:35.940 | we'll have a bunch of APJs recorded

00:12:37.740 | before you head out to Holland, France, and Germany,

00:12:40.460 | so there won't be any more gaps.

00:12:42.100 | We appreciate listeners who have put up

00:12:43.780 | with listening to recycled episodes,

00:12:46.340 | some of our classics this summer,

00:12:48.980 | to make room for Pastor John to do all of this writing,

00:12:51.580 | all of this travel, and we're looking forward

00:12:53.940 | to getting back into the routine here in the fall

00:12:56.180 | and getting you new episodes.

00:12:57.700 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:12:59.180 | - Thank you.

00:13:00.020 | - And a lot of great questions have come in from you,

00:13:02.540 | the listeners, thank you for those.

00:13:03.900 | Those are lined up on the docket,

00:13:05.660 | and we've gone through a number of them already.

00:13:07.740 | The easiest way to get new episodes

00:13:09.260 | is to subscribe to the podcast on your phone

00:13:11.860 | or your tablet through your favorite podcast app.

00:13:14.980 | I use Overcast, I know some of you use Downcast.

00:13:18.380 | Apple Podcasts is by far the most popular app

00:13:20.740 | among APJ listeners.

00:13:22.620 | But there you can get the latest episodes

00:13:24.260 | immediately as we release them.

00:13:26.700 | Download a podcast app that works for you and your device,

00:13:29.180 | and inside that app, search for Ask Pastor John

00:13:32.660 | and click on Subscribe.

00:13:34.380 | You can also subscribe to DG's YouTube channel

00:13:36.620 | and get all the episodes there,

00:13:37.960 | and of course, our entire archive of past episodes

00:13:40.540 | is always online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:13:45.540 | There you can find all 1,400 episodes

00:13:47.660 | and even ask a question of your own.

00:13:49.840 | Well, Monday we launch into new fall programming

00:13:52.760 | with a question 40 of you have asked over the years.

00:13:55.700 | I guess it's about time that we answered it.

00:13:57.740 | It's about water baptism.

00:13:58.980 | Specifically, are we saved after baptism,

00:14:01.680 | in baptism, or before baptism?

00:14:04.820 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:14:05.700 | We'll see you on the other side of the weekend.

00:14:07.500 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:14:09.980 | See you then.

00:14:10.820 | (upbeat music)

00:14:13.400 | (upbeat music)

00:14:15.980 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

We’re Back! — Update from John Piper

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