John Piper’s Favorite Things
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Happy New Year everyone.
00:00:05.480 | 2023 is here and we launch our new year
00:00:09.200 | with a more informal episode than normal.
00:00:11.640 | This one was recorded live in Nashville, Tennessee
00:00:14.520 | in front of 2000 friends of ours who were,
00:00:17.080 | well, they were quite engaged as you can hear.
00:00:19.360 | Have a listen.
00:00:20.200 | (audience cheering)
00:00:23.200 | - How many of you are regular listeners to the podcast?
00:00:28.720 | (audience cheering)
00:00:31.240 | The direction of our podcast is shaped
00:00:33.160 | by you, the listeners, right?
00:00:34.920 | You send us the questions, we sift through those.
00:00:38.760 | I ask John Piper the questions.
00:00:41.260 | I ask John Piper your most awkward questions.
00:00:43.680 | I'm willing to do that for you
00:00:45.120 | because I serve you, our listeners.
00:00:47.520 | And I've been wanting to do something like this
00:00:49.900 | for a long time on the podcast.
00:00:51.760 | And I figured let's do this in Nashville.
00:00:53.740 | Let's hear from John Piper about his favorite things.
00:00:57.580 | Over the decade of APJ, we've received over 100 questions
00:01:01.040 | from listeners asking random questions
00:01:03.180 | about John Piper's favorite soft drink,
00:01:06.120 | movies, novels, poets, things like that.
00:01:08.280 | So I just compiled all of those questions.
00:01:10.480 | I'm gonna pose them to Pastor John
00:01:11.880 | and he's got a rapid fire respond, okay?
00:01:13.820 | So he can't elaborate very long on that.
00:01:16.120 | - That's the problem.
00:01:16.960 | - That's the problem, yeah.
00:01:17.920 | So I boiled down these questions to 12, 12 questions.
00:01:22.480 | Okay, here we go.
00:01:23.580 | Ready, John Piper?
00:01:24.480 | - Yeah, but listen.
00:01:26.520 | Some of these are gonna be really short,
00:01:29.040 | like one word answer.
00:01:30.200 | - That's good.
00:01:31.120 | - Which means I can go longer on others, okay?
00:01:33.520 | (audience laughing)
00:01:35.220 | - All right, John Piper's favorite things.
00:01:37.160 | Here we go, number one.
00:01:38.440 | In APJ 696, you said, quote, "I have my favorite movies."
00:01:42.880 | And you left us at that.
00:01:44.200 | You never told us.
00:01:45.040 | What are your top three favorite movies?
00:01:47.440 | - I consulted my wife about this.
00:01:49.280 | I knew this question was coming.
00:01:51.240 | And we agreed that at the top would be Henry V,
00:01:55.840 | Kenneth Branagh's Shakespearean movie.
00:01:59.300 | An amazing speech that a pastor cannot listen to
00:02:04.880 | and not be moved to tears.
00:02:07.480 | We few, we happy few.
00:02:11.480 | Tomorrow who sheds his blood with me will be my brother.
00:02:15.760 | And then England defeats France at five to one odds.
00:02:20.660 | And they sing, no, nobis, nobis domine,
00:02:24.660 | said domine gloria.
00:02:27.540 | Not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.
00:02:30.500 | It's just a riveting, dramatic Shakespearean piece.
00:02:34.720 | That's number one.
00:02:35.560 | Number two would be "Chariots of Fire,"
00:02:38.680 | which you have seen.
00:02:41.320 | And the scene of him opening the note that God glorifies
00:02:46.320 | or God honors those who honor him.
00:02:49.920 | Powerful statement that moved me deeply.
00:02:53.100 | And my wife said, you really have to say "Princess Bride."
00:02:58.100 | [audience laughing]
00:03:01.140 | But you don't know why I have to say "Princess Bride."
00:03:07.280 | And the reason is because when I first saw it,
00:03:11.020 | I was preaching through Hebrews.
00:03:13.820 | And there is one scene that's serious
00:03:16.840 | in this hilarious movie.
00:03:19.720 | And it's the scene where,
00:03:21.820 | now I had to go back and remind myself the names
00:03:23.800 | 'cause I forget names.
00:03:25.060 | Inigo Montoya is standing at the top of the cliff
00:03:28.020 | and Wesley's climbing the cliff
00:03:29.820 | and he's gonna fall down if he doesn't hold on.
00:03:33.720 | And Inigo says, "I could drop you a rope."
00:03:37.500 | And he says, "Yeah, and then you would let go of the rope."
00:03:40.860 | And seriousness comes over his face.
00:03:44.500 | And he says, "I swear to you on the life of my father,
00:03:47.980 | Domingo Montoya, I won't drop you."
00:03:50.260 | And Wesley gets serious and says, "Drop the rope."
00:03:52.820 | I use that in the next Sunday sermon.
00:03:55.060 | [audience laughing]
00:03:56.780 | Because of the power of a promise
00:04:00.380 | and an oath in Hebrews.
00:04:03.140 | Okay.
00:04:03.980 | >> All right, that's really good.
00:04:05.420 | That was elaborate, that was a little more elaborate.
00:04:07.300 | >> It's way better.
00:04:08.260 | I won't do that, I won't do that if you want.
00:04:11.500 | I'm tempted to.
00:04:12.340 | >> All right, your favorite novel.
00:04:15.580 | >> I'm gonna cheat again, but I won't elaborate.
00:04:17.580 | "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr,
00:04:21.620 | a contemporary that is in the last 10 years,
00:04:24.260 | is a beautifully written book about the Second World War
00:04:28.020 | and the interweaving of lives of a young blind girl
00:04:32.060 | during the bombing of the Germans on France.
00:04:35.580 | "All the Light We Cannot See."
00:04:37.820 | "A Man at Arms" by Stephen Pressfield is also contemporary,
00:04:45.540 | written in the last five years probably,
00:04:47.980 | a dramatic telling of a young speechless girl
00:04:52.980 | carrying the Corinthian correspondence to Corinth,
00:04:58.100 | Paul's letters to Corinth,
00:05:00.220 | and a man at arms steps up to be her protector.
00:05:04.180 | Amazing book.
00:05:05.580 | And then historically, I mean, if I had to pick a classic,
00:05:08.740 | it would be "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky,
00:05:12.420 | just because the power of the description
00:05:15.660 | of the tormented soul of Raskolnikov is unparalleled.
00:05:19.980 | >> It is unparalleled.
00:05:21.340 | All right, number three,
00:05:22.180 | your favorite most frequently used Bible app.
00:05:25.540 | >> Logos.
00:05:26.580 | >> Logos Bible software.
00:05:27.740 | >> Yes.
00:05:28.580 | >> iPhone, iPad, laptop, all three?
00:05:31.380 | >> All three.
00:05:32.220 | >> All three.
00:05:33.060 | >> I'm on, like right now I'm on a leave working on,
00:05:36.180 | look at the book, I'm on Logos nine hours a day.
00:05:40.500 | I ran it into the ground.
00:05:41.900 | We had to call them to get them to figure out
00:05:45.460 | how to make it work after nine hours of work.
00:05:48.140 | And they fixed it for me.
00:05:50.660 | And I use my iPad for my devotions
00:05:53.380 | and it's Logos that I use.
00:05:56.620 | I find I'm very indebted to Logos.
00:05:59.140 | >> That's good.
00:06:00.180 | Your favorite poet, not in scripture.
00:06:03.140 | >> George Herbert died in 1633,
00:06:08.020 | wrote a collection called the Temple, 164 poems.
00:06:12.620 | None of them has the same rhyme scheme or meter.
00:06:15.460 | It's an absolutely amazing collection.
00:06:18.860 | The content, the craft, those two things together,
00:06:22.900 | I think in Herbert are without peer.
00:06:27.700 | >> Your favorite poem, not in scripture.
00:06:30.300 | >> Well, you know, I thought a lot about that.
00:06:32.060 | And my song is Love Unknown.
00:06:37.060 | Love Unknown is a hymn.
00:06:39.780 | But if you just take away the beautiful music,
00:06:43.500 | ♪ My song is love unknown ♪
00:06:47.140 | ♪ My savior's love to me ♪
00:06:49.620 | That's the tune, beautiful tune.
00:06:52.180 | But Samuel Crossman's poem by itself is magnificent.
00:06:57.180 | It's simply beautiful.
00:06:59.340 | The rhyme structure and the meter is very unusual
00:07:05.220 | and it's very hard to put solid, deep, moving words
00:07:10.220 | without sounding corny into structures of rhyme and meter.
00:07:16.260 | So my song is Love Unknown would be,
00:07:21.580 | and if I had to choose a non-religious one,
00:07:23.900 | it would be If by Rudyard Kipling.
00:07:26.340 | If, if, if, if, then you will be a man, my son.
00:07:30.180 | I love it.
00:07:31.020 | >> Love that line.
00:07:31.860 | Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.
00:07:35.980 | >> Yes.
00:07:36.820 | >> Such a great line.
00:07:37.940 | All right, number six, your favorite,
00:07:39.340 | this is important.
00:07:40.980 | This is what the people want to know, okay?
00:07:43.340 | Your favorite pop, soda, soft drink.
00:07:46.100 | >> It moves back and forth between diet,
00:07:48.980 | Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke.
00:07:50.420 | If I get tired of one, Noel will order the other
00:07:53.780 | and back and forth they go.
00:07:55.580 | Which means in the Washington DC airport,
00:07:58.420 | there are no Coke products.
00:08:00.020 | And if you walk around here, there are no Coke products.
00:08:02.700 | It's just appalling.
00:08:04.140 | [audience laughing]
00:08:06.060 | Like, where are we?
00:08:07.500 | >> Okay, your favorite dinner at home.
00:08:12.380 | >> My wife's spaghetti.
00:08:13.660 | She's sitting over there.
00:08:14.740 | >> There's Noel.
00:08:15.780 | >> Yeah.
00:08:16.660 | So this is, there's no, there's hands down.
00:08:19.940 | [audience applauding]
00:08:22.900 | She would know the answer to that right away.
00:08:24.980 | And so I'm just on her case to make it as often as possible
00:08:28.620 | when we have company and elsewhere.
00:08:30.820 | >> Favorite restaurant.
00:08:32.260 | >> Well, we talked about that one.
00:08:34.020 | And she said, you can't say Chick-fil-A.
00:08:37.500 | [audience laughing]
00:08:38.580 | And you can't say Chipotle,
00:08:40.460 | 'cause they don't, he doesn't mean fast foods.
00:08:42.620 | He means real bonafide restaurants.
00:08:44.820 | And so I said, well, how about then Olive Garden?
00:08:49.820 | And she said, well, that would work.
00:08:53.060 | That's true because our sons growing up,
00:08:56.820 | since we didn't very often go out to eat.
00:08:59.500 | And when we did, we went to the places I like,
00:09:02.660 | like Chick-fil-A.
00:09:04.020 | And then if we stepped it up, we would go to Olive Garden.
00:09:07.420 | And they thought Olive Garden was fine dining.
00:09:10.020 | [audience laughing]
00:09:11.580 | It is.
00:09:12.860 | [audience laughing]
00:09:14.780 | Why would you want to go any higher than that?
00:09:16.860 | Food tastes weird if you go higher than that.
00:09:19.940 | I mean, haven't you, the more expensive the restaurant,
00:09:23.060 | the weirder the food.
00:09:24.620 | I don't know why expensive gourmet chefs
00:09:28.140 | make food taste strange.
00:09:30.220 | It's just strange.
00:09:32.060 | >> That is a man of refined palate.
00:09:33.260 | >> I don't want my food to taste strange.
00:09:35.460 | >> All right, let's cut the mic at that point.
00:09:37.660 | [audience laughing]
00:09:40.140 | All right, your favorite hobby?
00:09:42.340 | >> I love to play Scrabble with my wife.
00:09:45.220 | I love to work in the yard.
00:09:47.460 | I like to pull grass out of sidewalk crevices.
00:09:52.460 | [audience laughing]
00:09:53.780 | I hate grass growing in sidewalks.
00:09:58.500 | And I like straight borders.
00:10:01.060 | I like it when the sidewalks are smooth.
00:10:04.420 | I don't like weeds growing around the boxwoods.
00:10:07.540 | I get a deep satisfaction from making things look Edenic
00:10:12.380 | or Eschatological, whichever way you want to look at it.
00:10:16.740 | >> All right, number 10, your favorite breakfast.
00:10:18.700 | A lot of you know what his favorite breakfast is,
00:10:20.500 | but why don't you say it?
00:10:21.500 | >> So the first layer is grape nuts.
00:10:25.300 | And the second layer is mini shredded wheats,
00:10:28.620 | not the sweetened kind.
00:10:30.420 | And the last layer is great heartland granola
00:10:33.740 | and then blueberries on top.
00:10:35.340 | I've eaten that for years and years.
00:10:37.740 | When we go on vacation, Noelle puts it all in a big sack
00:10:43.140 | and we take my breakfast,
00:10:45.340 | so I don't have to eat the stuff they serve here.
00:10:47.540 | I can eat that.
00:10:49.340 | >> All right.
00:10:51.420 | [audience laughing]
00:10:54.420 | Number 11, your favorite song by a Christian.
00:10:57.220 | Your favorite song by a Christian.
00:10:59.340 | >> That's impossible, but just right off the front burner,
00:11:04.060 | since I'm 76 and death is just coming on very quickly,
00:11:09.060 | the fresh rendition of Matt Merker's,
00:11:17.260 | "He Will Hold Me Fast" has risen in my affections
00:11:22.260 | and in my personal singing and my church singing
00:11:26.060 | to a level of sweetness that few songs have in recent years.
00:11:31.060 | Over the decades, I've had favorite hymns,
00:11:34.780 | but if you pushed my button right now
00:11:37.260 | and asked what would you like to sing,
00:11:39.340 | what's your emotional quotient right now?
00:11:43.600 | It would be, "He holds me, he's holding me,
00:11:46.780 | I'll get through, he's holding me."
00:11:49.300 | And the music that he put to that old hymn is perfect.
00:11:52.380 | >> It is perfect.
00:11:53.420 | All right, last, number 12,
00:11:54.500 | your favorite song by a non-Christian.
00:11:56.460 | >> I don't listen to much music by non-Christians,
00:11:58.940 | but I did in the '60s.
00:12:01.940 | So I think beautiful tunes were written in the '60s.
00:12:06.940 | I think the Beatles wrote beautiful tunes.
00:12:10.200 | I think Simon and Garfunkel wrote beautiful tunes
00:12:12.740 | and the Seekers wrote beautiful tunes.
00:12:14.900 | And so I have a playlist in my phone
00:12:18.180 | called '60s Instrumental.
00:12:19.940 | Get rid of the words,
00:12:20.780 | the words are usually nihilistic or vain,
00:12:23.900 | and so they're not helpful to me.
00:12:25.720 | So maybe "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," Simon and Garfunkel.
00:12:30.140 | "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is a song I would default to.
00:12:33.900 | Or I was playing a tune for Noelle the other day,
00:12:36.060 | I said, "Can you recognize this tune?"
00:12:38.620 | And she said, "I recognize the tune, but I can't name it."
00:12:40.940 | And it's "Here, There, and Everywhere" by the Beatles.
00:12:43.760 | So I've got a '60s heart left in me.
00:12:48.260 | - There it is, John Piper's 12 Favorite Things.
00:12:50.500 | (audience cheering)
00:12:53.420 | - Such a great time.
00:12:54.580 | Wonderful turnout, enthusiastic engagement,
00:12:58.500 | as you can hear at the Getty Sing Conference
00:13:00.580 | this summer in Nashville.
00:13:03.420 | And thank you for joining us for this first episode of 2023.
00:13:06.820 | You can ask a question of your own,
00:13:08.140 | search our growing archive,
00:13:09.260 | or subscribe to the podcast all at askpastorjohn.com.
00:13:13.900 | Well, Pastor John calls the experience of discouragement,
00:13:18.800 | quote, "Typical Christian life."
00:13:22.720 | Typical Christian life, typical.
00:13:26.140 | Being discouraged is more normal than abnormal.
00:13:30.900 | But when we find ourselves stuck in discouragement,
00:13:33.700 | can we get ourselves unstuck?
00:13:36.760 | We can.
00:13:37.960 | And the Bible gives us a strategy for how to do it.
00:13:40.400 | Pastor John will explain it next time.
00:13:42.400 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:13:44.100 | Welcome to 2023.
00:13:46.020 | And we will see you on Wednesday.
00:13:48.960 | (upbeat music)
00:13:51.540 | (upbeat music)
00:13:54.120 | [BLANK_AUDIO]