Well, the entire goal of the Ask Pastor John podcast is to make you happier in Jesus. But can this podcast actually kill your joy in Christ? When I read this question from a podcast listener, I thought, "Wow, Pastor John, we need to address this one." It comes to us from a listener named Rory.

"Pastor John, I've listened to the vast majority of the APJ episodes for the lifespan of the podcast." Well, however, I'm conscious that my Christian media intake, especially on YouTube, is taking away from time better spent doing important chores around the house. In the past, I used to binge watch lots of sermons by prominent preachers on the internet and then feel like I had overeaten on God's Word.

But my fear of missing out on the excellent wisdom and knowledge keeps me from stopping. This seems strange, but could a podcast like this one actually take away my joy? I think back to Moses' serpent on a staff. It was a means to save the Israelites in the desert, and it also had to be destroyed later because they treated it as an idol.

Sometimes I feel like that with Christian media. Pastor John, what would you say to Rory? Could the podcast Ask Pastor John take away your joy? What a great question. In other words, could it have the exact opposite effect that it's intended to have? And it sounds like Rory is ahead of me in providing biblical wisdom toward an answer, because he points to the serpent hanging on the staff that was meant for healing as a reminder of human helplessness and God's grace, but then became an object of worship.

Numbers 21.9 and 2 Kings 18.4. That's a sharp insight, Rory. So what do I need to teach you? He knows the answer. So what's left for me to say? Well, maybe what I should do is give a simple answer to the question, which he already knows, namely, yes, this podcast could take away your joy, rather than deepening it and strengthening it and connecting it to God.

Yes, that could happen. And then maybe I should follow this yes, which I just gave, with seven situations or reasons that might happen. I hope it doesn't sound too shocking to people, since I can't think of any good thing in the universe, including God himself, that if misused would not become hurtful.

So there's nothing unusual about saying asbestos can destroy faith or hurt people. One aspirin will heal you, a hundred will kill you. Fire in your fireplace will warm you, fire in the kitchen will burn your house down. Without the sun, we can't see anything beautiful. If you look at the sun, you go blind.

God is good and merciful. If you try to use him as a bellhop, exalting yourself as his boss, things are going to go very bad for you, no matter how good God is. I can't think of any good thing that can't become a hurtful, harmful thing if used badly.

So how might "Ask Pastor John" become one of those joy-robbing things rather than joy-raising? Number one, I've got seven brief ways you could be hurt by APJ. APJ would take away your joy if it is false or you misunderstand it when it's true. If I spoke so unclearly or ambiguously or erroneously that I mislead people into error, it would become a joy-defeating podcast.

Or if I spoke truly but people misunderstood what I said, it could become destructive. So in order for me to achieve the aims of "Ask Pastor John," there has to be truth and clarity on my side, and there has to be enough goodwill and careful listening from the listener on the other side.

Number two, APJ would take away your joy if it replaced the Bible. If this podcast does not lead people deeper into the Bible but instead begins to distract them from their own digging into the Bible, it will be destructive in the long run. God's Word is the only infallible source of truth, not me for sure.

Therefore, even if true statements draw people away from the Bible—get that?—even if true statements, good doctrine in a podcast draw people away from the Bible, they are putting a distance. That podcast is putting a distance between the people listening and the spring of faith-awakening, infallible gospel truth. That's very, very harmful.

Number three, APJ would take away your joy if it replaced your church or personal counsel from people. The Bible makes clear that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 3:25) and we should exhort one another every day (Hebrews 3:13). In other words, the dynamics of living face-to-face church life and the preciousness of interpersonal, mutual exhortation are indispensable for the kind of joyful maturity and health and obedience that God desires.

And if this podcast undermines the church, undermines church life and personal counsel, you're living in fellowships where you are confronted and encouraged every day from other people rather than enriching all that—that's what I want to do, I want to enrich all that, I don't want to replace all that—if that happens, then I will undermine your joy.

Number four, APJ would take away your joy if it becomes an obsession with John Piper. A crucial test of whether a podcast is being used in a Christ-exalting, faith-building, love-advancing way is whether its effect is coming from the glory of the reality in Scripture that is spoken or whether its effect is rooted in the personality of the speaker.

I'm happy if people enjoy listening to these podcasts, but every time there is an intermediary—a preacher, a teacher, a singer, a counselor, an actor, a friend—every time there's an intermediary between God and man, there's a risk that the mediator supplant the very thing he should be mediating, namely the truth and beauty and worth of God and his ways.

Number five, APJ would take away your joy if you were simply trying to score self-exalting points by listening to it and sharing it with others. I hope that one of the effects of this podcast is that people get insight, get knowledge, get wisdom, get ways of looking at the world that are fresh and biblical and helpful.

But wherever that's happening, the danger exists that somebody will take one of those new insights and use it to score points against someone who doesn't have that insight to bolster their own ego. If that's the use that someone begins to make of the podcast, it will ruin their joy.

Number six, APJ would take away your joy if listening to it were driven by fear. Rory says he couldn't stop listening for fear of missing out on something. Well, that fear, seems to me, is rooted in bad soil. And the first thing bad about that soil is how narrow-minded and unrealistic it is.

The fact is that Rory and all of us are missing out every day on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of insights that are spoken by excellent teachers and preachers and counselors on the internet, because you cannot possibly listen to them all. You have to miss them. You have to miss them.

So we need to have a realistic assessment of what's possible and an honest view of our own limitations as finite, fallible people. And the other thing that's bad about that soil that gives rise to this fear is that fear's not healthy. It's not a Christ-honoring Christian motivation for listening to podcasts.

So let the sweet, restful, peaceful contentment of Christ replace your fear. And listen out of freedom, or not. Verse 7, lastly, "APJ would take away your joy if it kept you from doing tasks that God calls you to do." Rory mentions this. Paul says that we should do our work to make a living so that we're not mooching off other people.

He says that in Ephesians 4. He says it in 1 Thessalonians. That means you can't read your Bible all day and be obedient to Scripture, let alone listen to podcasts all day. Because you got to do your work. You got to make a living so you don't mooch off other people.

You're designed by God to have a rhythm. There's a rhythm of healthy intake of truth and outlay of energy. So let's find it. So yes, APJ can take away your joy. And if any of you is being drawn into any of these seven directions, farewell. At least for a while.

Yeah. That seems like one of those sure to be classic episodes in the podcast. Thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for listening to this podcast over at our online home. You can explore all of our episodes in our archive of about 1300 episodes to date. There you can see a list of our most popular episodes, read full transcripts, and submit questions you might be wrestling with yourself.

For all of that, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Will all of us experience it? Blasphemous thoughts about God emerge in our mind sometimes. Thoughts that question his goodness and question his character. So where do these thoughts come from and how should we respond? That's the question on Monday when we return.

I'm your host Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend. We'll see you back here then. Bye.