Seven Ways This Podcast Will Kill Your Joy

00:00:00.000 | Well, the entire goal of the Ask Pastor John podcast is to make you happier in Jesus.

00:00:10.480 | But can this podcast actually kill your joy in Christ?

00:00:15.520 | When I read this question from a podcast listener, I thought, "Wow, Pastor John, we need to

00:00:18.760 | address this one."

00:00:20.320 | It comes to us from a listener named Rory.

00:00:22.320 | "Pastor John, I've listened to the vast majority of the APJ episodes for the lifespan of the

00:00:27.240 | podcast."

00:00:28.240 | Well, however, I'm conscious that my Christian media intake, especially on YouTube, is taking

00:00:33.600 | away from time better spent doing important chores around the house.

00:00:38.760 | In the past, I used to binge watch lots of sermons by prominent preachers on the internet

00:00:43.520 | and then feel like I had overeaten on God's Word.

00:00:48.040 | But my fear of missing out on the excellent wisdom and knowledge keeps me from stopping.

00:00:53.060 | This seems strange, but could a podcast like this one actually take away my joy?

00:00:59.360 | I think back to Moses' serpent on a staff.

00:01:02.280 | It was a means to save the Israelites in the desert, and it also had to be destroyed later

00:01:06.180 | because they treated it as an idol.

00:01:09.240 | Sometimes I feel like that with Christian media.

00:01:11.480 | Pastor John, what would you say to Rory?

00:01:14.520 | Could the podcast Ask Pastor John take away your joy?

00:01:19.920 | What a great question.

00:01:22.520 | In other words, could it have the exact opposite effect that it's intended to have?

00:01:31.560 | And it sounds like Rory is ahead of me in providing biblical wisdom toward an answer,

00:01:38.200 | because he points to the serpent hanging on the staff that was meant for healing as a

00:01:45.640 | reminder of human helplessness and God's grace, but then became an object of worship.

00:01:52.280 | Numbers 21.9 and 2 Kings 18.4.

00:01:55.920 | That's a sharp insight, Rory.

00:01:58.360 | So what do I need to teach you?

00:02:01.400 | He knows the answer.

00:02:03.080 | So what's left for me to say?

00:02:05.120 | Well, maybe what I should do is give a simple answer to the question, which he already knows,

00:02:11.480 | namely, yes, this podcast could take away your joy, rather than deepening it and strengthening

00:02:18.360 | it and connecting it to God.

00:02:20.120 | Yes, that could happen.

00:02:21.940 | And then maybe I should follow this yes, which I just gave, with seven situations or reasons

00:02:31.000 | that might happen.

00:02:32.600 | I hope it doesn't sound too shocking to people, since I can't think of any good thing in the

00:02:39.800 | universe, including God himself, that if misused would not become hurtful.

00:02:46.600 | So there's nothing unusual about saying asbestos can destroy faith or hurt people.

00:02:52.800 | One aspirin will heal you, a hundred will kill you.

00:02:55.620 | Fire in your fireplace will warm you, fire in the kitchen will burn your house down.

00:02:59.680 | Without the sun, we can't see anything beautiful.

00:03:02.000 | If you look at the sun, you go blind.

00:03:04.500 | God is good and merciful.

00:03:06.240 | If you try to use him as a bellhop, exalting yourself as his boss, things are going to

00:03:11.200 | go very bad for you, no matter how good God is.

00:03:14.400 | I can't think of any good thing that can't become a hurtful, harmful thing if used badly.

00:03:22.000 | So how might "Ask Pastor John" become one of those joy-robbing things rather than joy-raising?

00:03:30.760 | Number one, I've got seven brief ways you could be hurt by APJ.

00:03:37.040 | APJ would take away your joy if it is false or you misunderstand it when it's true.

00:03:44.660 | If I spoke so unclearly or ambiguously or erroneously that I mislead people into error,

00:03:53.080 | it would become a joy-defeating podcast.

00:03:55.940 | Or if I spoke truly but people misunderstood what I said, it could become destructive.

00:04:03.700 | So in order for me to achieve the aims of "Ask Pastor John," there has to be truth

00:04:10.020 | and clarity on my side, and there has to be enough goodwill and careful listening from

00:04:15.980 | the listener on the other side.

00:04:17.860 | Number two, APJ would take away your joy if it replaced the Bible.

00:04:22.800 | If this podcast does not lead people deeper into the Bible but instead begins to distract

00:04:27.860 | them from their own digging into the Bible, it will be destructive in the long run.

00:04:32.300 | God's Word is the only infallible source of truth, not me for sure.

00:04:38.900 | Therefore, even if true statements draw people away from the Bible—get that?—even if

00:04:46.340 | true statements, good doctrine in a podcast draw people away from the Bible, they are

00:04:53.900 | putting a distance.

00:04:56.220 | That podcast is putting a distance between the people listening and the spring of faith-awakening,

00:05:04.780 | infallible gospel truth.

00:05:06.460 | That's very, very harmful.

00:05:09.060 | Number three, APJ would take away your joy if it replaced your church or personal counsel

00:05:15.660 | from people.

00:05:17.220 | The Bible makes clear that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews

00:05:23.340 | 3:25) and we should exhort one another every day (Hebrews 3:13).

00:05:29.740 | In other words, the dynamics of living face-to-face church life and the preciousness of interpersonal,

00:05:38.620 | mutual exhortation are indispensable for the kind of joyful maturity and health and obedience

00:05:45.780 | that God desires.

00:05:47.380 | And if this podcast undermines the church, undermines church life and personal counsel,

00:05:55.100 | you're living in fellowships where you are confronted and encouraged every day from other

00:06:02.020 | people rather than enriching all that—that's what I want to do, I want to enrich all that,

00:06:08.340 | I don't want to replace all that—if that happens, then I will undermine your joy.

00:06:13.820 | Number four, APJ would take away your joy if it becomes an obsession with John Piper.

00:06:19.620 | A crucial test of whether a podcast is being used in a Christ-exalting, faith-building,

00:06:26.460 | love-advancing way is whether its effect is coming from the glory of the reality in Scripture

00:06:35.380 | that is spoken or whether its effect is rooted in the personality of the speaker.

00:06:41.900 | I'm happy if people enjoy listening to these podcasts, but every time there is an intermediary—a

00:06:49.860 | preacher, a teacher, a singer, a counselor, an actor, a friend—every time there's an

00:06:57.820 | intermediary between God and man, there's a risk that the mediator supplant the very

00:07:09.580 | thing he should be mediating, namely the truth and beauty and worth of God and his ways.

00:07:16.780 | Number five, APJ would take away your joy if you were simply trying to score self-exalting

00:07:23.660 | points by listening to it and sharing it with others.

00:07:27.900 | I hope that one of the effects of this podcast is that people get insight, get knowledge,

00:07:36.060 | get wisdom, get ways of looking at the world that are fresh and biblical and helpful.

00:07:44.060 | But wherever that's happening, the danger exists that somebody will take one of those

00:07:55.340 | new insights and use it to score points against someone who doesn't have that insight to bolster

00:08:03.140 | their own ego.

00:08:04.940 | If that's the use that someone begins to make of the podcast, it will ruin their joy.

00:08:11.860 | Number six, APJ would take away your joy if listening to it were driven by fear.

00:08:17.820 | Rory says he couldn't stop listening for fear of missing out on something.

00:08:23.820 | Well, that fear, seems to me, is rooted in bad soil.

00:08:28.180 | And the first thing bad about that soil is how narrow-minded and unrealistic it is.

00:08:33.700 | The fact is that Rory and all of us are missing out every day on hundreds and hundreds and

00:08:40.660 | hundreds and thousands of insights that are spoken by excellent teachers and preachers

00:08:45.900 | and counselors on the internet, because you cannot possibly listen to them all.

00:08:50.420 | You have to miss them.

00:08:51.660 | You have to miss them.

00:08:53.260 | So we need to have a realistic assessment of what's possible and an honest view of our

00:09:00.060 | own limitations as finite, fallible people.

00:09:03.100 | And the other thing that's bad about that soil that gives rise to this fear is that

00:09:07.780 | fear's not healthy.

00:09:09.180 | It's not a Christ-honoring Christian motivation for listening to podcasts.

00:09:15.260 | So let the sweet, restful, peaceful contentment of Christ replace your fear.

00:09:25.060 | And listen out of freedom, or not.

00:09:27.380 | Verse 7, lastly, "APJ would take away your joy if it kept you from doing tasks that God

00:09:33.780 | calls you to do."

00:09:35.140 | Rory mentions this.

00:09:36.380 | Paul says that we should do our work to make a living so that we're not mooching off other

00:09:42.900 | people.

00:09:43.900 | He says that in Ephesians 4.

00:09:45.060 | He says it in 1 Thessalonians.

00:09:47.380 | That means you can't read your Bible all day and be obedient to Scripture, let alone listen

00:09:55.340 | to podcasts all day.

00:09:57.300 | Because you got to do your work.

00:09:58.300 | You got to make a living so you don't mooch off other people.

00:10:02.060 | You're designed by God to have a rhythm.

00:10:04.580 | There's a rhythm of healthy intake of truth and outlay of energy.

00:10:10.220 | So let's find it.

00:10:11.660 | So yes, APJ can take away your joy.

00:10:15.740 | And if any of you is being drawn into any of these seven directions, farewell.

00:10:22.140 | At least for a while.

00:10:25.620 | Yeah.

00:10:26.620 | That seems like one of those sure to be classic episodes in the podcast.

00:10:30.700 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:10:32.380 | And thanks for listening to this podcast over at our online home.

00:10:35.540 | You can explore all of our episodes in our archive of about 1300 episodes to date.

00:10:39.860 | There you can see a list of our most popular episodes, read full transcripts, and submit

00:10:43.340 | questions you might be wrestling with yourself.

00:10:46.260 | For all of that, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:52.260 | Will all of us experience it?

00:10:55.160 | Blasphemous thoughts about God emerge in our mind sometimes.

00:10:59.500 | Thoughts that question his goodness and question his character.

00:11:03.020 | So where do these thoughts come from and how should we respond?

00:11:06.420 | That's the question on Monday when we return.

00:11:08.420 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:11:09.420 | Have a great weekend.

00:11:10.420 | We'll see you back here then.

00:11:11.700 | Bye.

00:11:12.200 | [END]

00:11:14.200 | [END]

00:11:16.200 | [END]

00:11:18.200 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Seven Ways This Podcast Will Kill Your Joy

Chapters