That's the track "Fallen" off Trip Lee's album "The Good Life", three years old and still a personal favorite, an amazing album. And it's Friday and we're back one last time with hip-hop artist and author Trip Lee. Trip, you are a writer and so of course you're a reader as well, so I want to ask you, outside of the pages of Scripture of course, who are the most influential theologians or the most influential books by theologians that have shaped your life and shaped your ministry?

That's a really hard question for me because I love reading and really books have been huge in my life. That's part of why I wanted to write, just like with music. Music impacted me, I wanted to do music to impact people. The same thing with books, but a couple I think I could point out, "Knowing God" by J.I.

Packer. That was a book that was recommended to me when I was about 15 or 16 years old and I was passionate about Jesus, but I hadn't read any really good books yet and I didn't know how to even find good books. I was just reading whatever and a guy who's a disciple of me at the time recommended that to me.

And let me tell you, it changed my life because I had never read a book with such a big view of God. You know, I knew God was big and he was good, but when I read that book, just the depth of doctrine and theology rooted in Scripture and all with kind of the context of a relational knowledge of God, it really changed my life.

Another book that was really helpful for me, there have been so many Piper books that have been deeply helpful for me, probably my favorite is "When I Don't Desire God" because for me it came at a crucial time when I was really just trying to think, "In my day to day, how do I really fight for joy in God?" And you know, I want to desire God.

I understand that's a part of God sanctifying me, but how do I do it? And that book was just so good and helpful for me and giving me a good kind of worldview for that. So that book was huge. Arnold Dalimore's biography of Spurgeon, just called Spurgeon, was huge for me because I love Spurgeon.

I've read a lot of his stuff and have been really encouraged by it. And I love reading biographies because you just get to see God's providence in the life of a man, and especially extraordinary. It can be discouraging when you read about Spurgeon because you're like, "What in the world am I doing?

He did so much." Yes, painfully so. And like, "How is he this amazing?" He was a pastor in '19 and the Lord was using him in incredible ways, and he read all these books and did all this stuff in the orphanage and past his college, all of that. But it's really cool to see God's providence in his life because as much as you want to look at him and say, "Man, he's amazing," it's still really clear.

The amazing one is God because he's orchestrated all these things. And that happens when you read so many biographies of Christian men and women over history. And I can name a trillion more books, but those are three that have really influenced me deeply. Wonderful. And to repeat, those books are Knowing God by J.I.

Packer, Spurgeon by Arnold Dalimore, and When I Don't Desire God by John Piper, which you can download entirely free of charge right now at DesiringGod.org. Click on the tab that says "Books," scroll to the bottom of the page, and find the title, "When I Don't Desire God." Download it and enjoy it right away free of charge.

We are grateful for Trip Lee's time these past two weeks filling in for the traveling John Piper. It has been rich, and we deeply appreciate the gifts and wisdom God has given to Trip, and we wish blessings on him and for his ministry that reaches so many people inside the church and outside of the church.

And this weekend you can check out his new book and his new album, both titled "Rise," and both available at Amazon.com right now. I'm your host Tony Reinhke, we'll see you on Monday. you you