(upbeat music) Today we wrap up year number eight on the Ask Pastor John podcast, which is amazing. The time has passed by so quickly. The run of this podcast recently dawned on me when I read an email that we got from a young man who said that he started listening to the podcast shortly after he was converted, and now he's entering seminary and still listening.

It's amazing, I had to stop and compute that for a moment, the kind of duration of someone converted and then entering seminary. So we've been doing this a while. Here we are finishing up year number eight, and as we do, I wanted to give you just a little glance at the numbers of where the podcast is at right now.

And over those eight years, we have released 1,600 episodes in the podcast, starting back on John Piper's birthday on January 11th, 2013. That was episode number one. And then with all of the special and unnumbered episodes, and then obviously the ones that are numbered, that's a tally of 1,600 episodes to date.

Incredible. And on those episodes, when you look at Pastor John's episodes, the ones where he's the one I'm talking with, no guest episodes, Pastor John transcripts alone represent 1.7 million words of content. Just to put that into perspective, imagine the entire Lord of the Rings series, read them once and then read them a second time, and then read them a third time.

That's the equivalent of the word count of John Piper's episodes on APJ. Oh, and you'd also have to read "The Hobbit" three times as well. 1.7 million words. It's an incredible amount of content. But of course, this podcast is meant to be heard with the ears. And if you tally up all the plays on all those episodes, APJ episodes have been listened to 180 million times.

That's an average of over 112,000 plays per episode. That's so encouraging. And not only do the episodes get listened to as we release them, but people regularly access those episodes like an archive of on-demand pastoral answers, really, when needs and questions arise in your life. So I can't tell you how gratifying it is to invest my life on a project that has such a long-term use and a value to so many.

So thanks for reading, thanks for listening, and thanks for watching. Yes, watching. As I study the numbers, what strikes me is the growth we've seen in YouTube. Yes, YouTube. As many of you know, for the past few years now, we've released each APJ episode as a video in YouTube.

In 2019, those episodes accounted for 6.7 million plays. Just shy of 7 million plays. That number has doubled this year. In 2020, we saw 13.2 million plays, just in YouTube. And it continues to be a growing platform for our podcast. It'll be interesting to see what the Lord has in store in 2021 for APJ on YouTube.

And if that's you, if you're listening to or watching this episode right now, thank you for investing so much of your attention into our DG YouTube channel. It's super encouraging. Well, there's so much to be encouraged about as we close out the year. And recently, Pastor John visited the DG offices in Minneapolis in order to ponder the meaning of 2020 and to talk about why we released so many teaching resources.

And I wanted to play for you what he said. Here's Pastor John. - It may seem strange to you as I ponder the meaning of 2020 and look back over pandemic and political intrigue and tension and all kinds of outrage and division inside and outside the church and natural disasters.

As I look back over this extraordinary year, I find myself reacting perhaps differently than others because I feel like I've been living in another world, namely the world of Ephesians, a reality with election before the foundation of the world unto holiness, the reality of predestination unto sonship through Jesus Christ to the praise of the glory of God, the reality of redemption by the blood of the Son of God for the forgiveness of our trespasses, the reality of sovereign God reaching into my dead heart and giving me life, the reality of sealing with the Holy Spirit, the reality that Paul describes in chapter two about being separated from the Messiah and cut off from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise and without hope in the world.

And I step back and say, that's another world besides the 2020 that people are talking about. So what hit me, I was reading Hebrews the other day. You come to chapter five and it says, "By this time you ought to be teachers." Look, everybody, all Christians, "By this time you ought to be teachers." And I felt like nobody knows the world of Ephesians in the world, in the church, who knows what it means to be elect and predestined and redeemed and sealed and born again and participants in the promises of Israel and part of the commonwealth of the people of God who even functions in those categories.

And it hit me, what we need is a tidal wave of teachers. I mean, as Paul looked out on an empire of ignorance about Christianity, do you remember what he did in Ephesians? When he got to Ephesus, it says he preached in the synagogue for three months arguing about these things because they didn't know anything about them.

And they kicked him out. And you know what he did next? He holed up for two years. And it says, every day, every day for two years, he teaches. And the result, all Asia heard the word of the Lord. So I find myself here at the end of 2020, looking out over a sea of ignorance.

And I think of the election and I think of the pandemic and I think of the natural disasters. Those are bubbles popping on a sea of ignorance. And everything in me says, I wanna be a part of a spirit anointed movement of teaching in this world. I wanna fill Jerusalem with my teaching.

I wanna fill America, fill the nations with teaching because there's no other way people could make any informed thoughts, inclinations, decisions, loves about the truth if they don't know what it is. And so here I am, the offices of desiring God say, I am so glad that's what we do.

We exist to bring people to glorify God by making them satisfied more in God than anything by teaching and teaching and teaching about his truth and worth and beauty, all based on the Bible. Many of you know all about that. Others of you are brand new to us. We exist because of your partnership.

If you're a veteran and you love what we do, if you're brand new and that just rings true to you, my invitation here at the end of the year is simply join us as a financial partner. Whether you give a little or you give a lot, whether you give once or you give monthly, whatever you do, if that rings true, I invite you to join us.

And as we close the year, just take heart, take heart because God has said, I am God and there is no other. I am God and there's none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel will stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

He's gonna do it. The world just needs to know. They need teaching. - Exactly, the world needs a lot more teaching and that's one reason why we are up to 1600 APJ episodes to date and counting, Lord willing with many more to come and 180 million episode plays all time.

As you might imagine, this podcast is not free to make and distribute and promote around the world. It only happens through the joyful investment of our ministry partners and that can be you. As we near the end of year eight, you can support us for the first time or you can extend your support to us at desiringgod.org/donate.

That's desiringgod.org/donate. And speaking of God's truth and worth and beauty, all based on the Bible, on Friday we launch a new year and that means many of us reset our Bible reading plans. Pastor John has a Bible reading plan he likes and I'll tell you which one it is on Friday.

And I'll ask Pastor John, how can we prepare for the sustained discipline and energy it will take to read the entire Bible through the year ahead? He's back in the studio with me on Friday for that. Let's do this again. Let's do this another eight years, another 1600 episodes, another 180 million plays, why not?

Lord willing, we can in a second tidal wave of teaching with you alongside us. So would you please pray for us as our labors enter the new year? Pray for Pastor John and myself. We would really appreciate your prayers, not only financial support, but your prayer support is really important to us.

And with that, year number eight comes to an end. On Friday we launch year number nine. I'm Tony Reinke, we'll see you in 2021. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)