(upbeat music) - Pastor John, we're back. And it just took us about 40 minutes to get our recording equipment set up. - That's right, I'm so out of practice. I didn't even know how to set up Skype anymore. (laughing) - It's been a long time. No, not a problem, we are back.

And that's the important thing that APJ listeners are gonna wanna hear. Things are a little bit different. We're both in our home studios. My home studio's a little bit different now. I'm in Phoenix. - Yeah, it's about a thousand miles away, right? - It was an 1800 mile drive.

So yeah, we moved here in July and it's smoking hot. Glad to be in Phoenix. You're in Minneapolis. We're back at it. - It's beautiful here, guy. It's beautiful. You didn't have to go down there. - Well, I'll return that favor in December. - That's right, I know you will.

Hey, it's minus 40 outside. - Exactly. You know, both of us are in our home studios. This spring, you have had a really busy 2019, really fruitful. You traveled this spring to Belfast and to Edinburgh. And then you went on a 40 day writing leave this summer. And you and I just returned home from Sing, Nashville.

And our first ever APJ Live event where we recorded five episodes in front of like, I think, 2000 listeners or so. It was just a really amazing experience. So it seemed to go really well. You're back now in the studio for a little while. And actually, by the time this new episode releases, you'll be on your way out the door again, this time to minister in Holland and France and Germany.

So, I mean, give us a little update on 2019. Tell us about your first Europe trip. How did the book turn out? And then give us a little preview of what's to come for your second Europe trip. - When I think about the summer, especially the completion of the Providence book a few days ago, the answer to the question, how's the summer going?

Feels like it should be answered from Isaiah 46. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb, even to your old age, I am he. And to gray hairs, I will carry you.

I have made and I will bear, I will carry and will save. In other words, Tony, I feel about this summer that I'm being carried. That's my main sense. And here's a small parable that the folks might find encouraging for their lives. It certainly is for mine, a little parable of God's carrying Providence during the writing of the book on Providence.

So I began the 40 day writing leave about half or two thirds of the way through what I hoped would be a biblical summary of the goal and nature and extent of God's Providence. Those are the three aspects that I came at it. And that meant I thought I might write maybe this summer 50,000 words in addition to the 100, 110 that I wrote last summer in these 40 days.

And there was no detailed outline. It just kind of emerged as I wrote. You think you want to write a chapter on how God's Providence works to transform his people and you end up writing six chapters on how God works to transform his people. In other words, the whole project is unpredictable and you have no idea if it will fit within the 40 days you've set aside to try to finish it.

So you just, you write as fast as you can and as carefully as you can in the minutes that you have. It's like, when I thought of this, it's like watching, I remember actually watching this live, the 1989 finish of the Tour de France where Greg LeMond was 50 seconds behind the Frenchman Laurent Fignon.

And there was only one leg to go. And it was a 20 mile, which is almost nothing in this race, you know, it's 2000 miles long, 20 mile time trial. Nobody can make up 50 seconds over a world-class rider in a time trial. And LeMond says to his teammates and all his technicians, "I don't want any radio connection in my head at all.

I don't want you to tell me how close I am to him or anything. I am going to ride as fast as I can ride. So there's no point in having an earbud in my ear since I'm given flat out." And he beat Fignon by eight seconds. So he won a 2000 mile race by eight seconds in 1989.

Now that's what these 40 days felt like to me. I'm not going to wear a microphone in my head, meaning I'm not going to constantly compute how many days are left, how many days are left and can I finish? I'm just going to go flat out six days a week, nine, 10 hours a day and let Providence, finish Providence or not.

And I came to the last day and I only had the conclusion to write, which I thought in itself was an absolute miracle. I came down to Noel for supper time and I said, "Can you believe this? Can you believe this? This is the last writing day. And I have just a little bit of my conclusion to write and it's now 7 p.m." So I eat supper with Noel and I say, "I'm just going to go up and finish it.

I don't want it hanging over till tomorrow. I've got other things to do." And when I went to bed at 12.45 a.m., it hit me that I finished this book, not just on the last day of the writing leave, but in the last minutes of the last day of the writing leave, which Tony felt to me like the kiss of Providence.

That's what it felt like. So vastly more important than such little parable. I call that a parable for me, 'cause that's all it is. It's just God giving me this little, "I'm okay, you're okay, I'm in charge of this. Don't worry, just work, be faithful and I'll manage the details of your life." But vastly more important than the parable of Providence is the biblical truth of what the Bible teaches about Providence, which I define as the purposeful sovereignty of God.

I don't equate sovereignty and Providence because sovereignty doesn't carry in itself the meaning of purpose. You could be sovereign and be whimsical. But if you say Providence, you mean that there is now purposefulness in the sovereignty and the best summary of it is just what? Four or five verses after, and this is a sweet Providence as well, four or five verses after those verses on being carried to your old age, where it says in verse nine, and the others ended, I think, at verse four, "I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there's none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. From ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose." So that's purposeful sovereignty. So God will carry his people to glory. He cannot fail and therefore they cannot fail.

All his purposes stand and his purposes include the smallest birds that fall from the trees and every hair of your head being numbered and the appearance and movements of the stars and the rise and fall of nations and everybody's life and death and every living being and salvation of God's elect.

That's the totality of God's purposeful sovereignty. Those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. None of God's people fail to persevere. He knows his own. He saves them to the uttermost. So you can tell maybe that I love, I love the providence of God.

I love the truth of the purposeful sovereignty of God. So I'm on my knees at the end of this summer with thankfulness for the way God has carried me. The book won't be out for another year. That's the way things work. But here's a connection, just a word about the international ministry.

You mentioned the past and the future. So Amsterdam, Paris, and Hamburg are just around the corner in late September and early October. And that'll be our third international trip this year, which is more than we've ever done before. We were in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, then in Belfast and Edinburgh, two different trips before this summer.

And this emphasis on the nations that is making these trips, which are costly in terms of time. I could be making a lot of APJs while I'm on the jet. This emphasis on the nations beyond the US fits with a heightened consciousness and a heightened commitment at Desiring God of what it means to be a web-based ministry whose reach is to every nation on earth.

And in the last six months, I asked Scott yesterday if this was accurate, in the last six months, about 7.5 million people have tapped into our online ministries at Desiring God from outside the United States. Now that puts us in touch with movements that love the infallible scriptures, love the supremacy of a saving Christ, love the sovereignty of God in salvation, love the power of joy to sustain love and suffering.

And we feel ourselves, this is the way I say it and feel it, I feel myself and us as a ministry called increasingly to bless those movements in ways that they find helpful, not us going to them and telling them what they need, but them coming to us, having found help, and our aim is to serve what God is doing, where people already find what we love at Desiring God to be helpful, and then help them press into other groups around them.

So it's been a very fruitful summer. To top it off with, you didn't ask about this, but I'll say it anyway. To top it off with grace and joy, I get to perform the wedding of my daughter - Oh, wonderful. - in just a few weeks. So by the time this plays, she will be Mrs.

Moore, Lord willing. I look forward to the sovereign arms of God carrying me and Noel to Europe and back. But as James says, and it's a big part of this book, James 4:15, "You ought to say, John Piper, "if the Lord wills, we will go to Amsterdam, "Paris, and Hamburg.

"Otherwise, you're arrogant when you talk, "because I run the world, you don't. "So if the Lord wills, we will live "and go to Europe and back. "If not, we die." But in God's providence, I love to say with Henry Martin, we are immortal till our works are done. - And if the Lord wills, we'll have a bunch of APJs recorded before you head out to Holland, France, and Germany, so there won't be any more gaps.

We appreciate listeners who have put up with listening to recycled episodes, some of our classics this summer, to make room for Pastor John to do all of this writing, all of this travel, and we're looking forward to getting back into the routine here in the fall and getting you new episodes.

Thank you, Pastor John. - Thank you. - And a lot of great questions have come in from you, the listeners, thank you for those. Those are lined up on the docket, and we've gone through a number of them already. The easiest way to get new episodes is to subscribe to the podcast on your phone or your tablet through your favorite podcast app.

I use Overcast, I know some of you use Downcast. Apple Podcasts is by far the most popular app among APJ listeners. But there you can get the latest episodes immediately as we release them. Download a podcast app that works for you and your device, and inside that app, search for Ask Pastor John and click on Subscribe.

You can also subscribe to DG's YouTube channel and get all the episodes there, and of course, our entire archive of past episodes is always online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. There you can find all 1,400 episodes and even ask a question of your own. Well, Monday we launch into new fall programming with a question 40 of you have asked over the years.

I guess it's about time that we answered it. It's about water baptism. Specifically, are we saved after baptism, in baptism, or before baptism? I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on the other side of the weekend. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. See you then.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music)