Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / The ‘Ask Pastor John’ Book Is Here

Transcript

The ‘Ask Pastor John’ Book Is Here · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Well. In January of twenty thirteen, we launched a little podcast into the
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  world. We called it Ask Pastor John. He slapped a little jingle on
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  the front end hit published on a temporary podcast meant to last us fifteen months
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  or so, just to fill up a short little need we had here at
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  Desiring God and Pastor John. Here we are, two thousand episodes later.
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  I can't even remember those days, you know, it seems like a distant
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  memory. And I think I used to call you up on your phone.
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  You used your landline phone for those early years, remember that in Tennessee.
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  Yeah, two thousand episodes later, we're now into our twelfth year, and
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  today we look back. We look back at what God has done in the
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  past years of APJ, and we look forward with prayers for the future and
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  prayers for what God might do in a new APJ book. That's the book
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  that releases today. More on that in a moment. As we start off,
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  Pastor John, just tell us how this podcast fits within your ministry legacy.
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  How do you think of it now? Twelve years in. My parents
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  built into me from the time I could read. That's about six years old.
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  Whomen moving into the house I'm thinking about a passion for legacy, and
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  I didn't know that at the time. I didn't know what legacy was.
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  But that's what it was, because hanging on the wall in our kitchen,
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  and it hangs behind me right now where I'm standing in my study, was
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  this motto, only one life twill soon be passed. Only what's done for
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  Christ will last. That's legacy talk. So I believe, Tony, that
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  you and I have produced asked Pastor John for Christ, only what's done for
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  Christ will last. And we didn't do it for ourselves. We did it
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  for Christ. We're doing it for Christ. Your book will be I believe
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  part of the fulfillment of the second half of the motto, what's done for
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  Christ will last. You know well, Tony, that I have my favorite
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  hyphenated phrases right now. God centered Christ exalting Bible saturated. And I think
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  that's what asked Pastor John. Is that's the legacy. God centered Christ exalting
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  Bible saturated council for people who are in need. And I would underline Bible
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  saturated because many podcasts are enjoyable conversations that people have online. That's not what
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  we've done for ten years. Almost every episode is a careful expression, well
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  prepared with a lot of thought gone into it, of about an hour hour
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  and a half study and thought and prayer saturated with the Bible. So I
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  think, Tony, our legacy will be. They were God centered, they
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  were christ exalting. They were Bible guys with a strange twist called Christian hedonism
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  because they believed that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied
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  in Him. I think that's the way I would express the legacy. Amen.
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  May it be that has certainly been our prayer from the very start of
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  this podcast. And if you want the full backstory of where this podcast came
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  from and how it's tied to the unique ways the Pastor John is gifted to
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  answer questions, I tell that backstory in the introduction to my brand new book
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  just mentioned. It's titled Ask Pastor John seven hundred and fifty Bible Answers to
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  Life's Most Important Questions. That new book launches today. It's the point of
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  this special episode to announce the new book, Ask Pastor John seven hundred and
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  fifty Bible Answers to Life's Most Important Questions, and you know people hearing about
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  the book for the first time ask me, Tony, what is it like?
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  Why did you write this book about a podcast? Especially when the whole
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  archive has transcribed, it's online. It's just a Google starch away for anyone
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  who wants it. Really, the genesis of this new book came years ago
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  when friends of our ministry partners donors would email me asking me about some pressing
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  question that has come up in their life and their family and their church,
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  asking me for one APJA episode that could answer a dilemma. And I think
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  the archive is intimidating for a lot of people. We're up to I think
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  two hundred and fifty hours of content now, and that grows by the week,
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  So that's a lot of content to sift through. So what I would
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  do is I would take the question from the donor, dive into the archive
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  and always find multiple episodes on a topic, and respond with an email that
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  was basically a digest of those episodes that I found, or even just parts
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  of an episode that I found that I thought could help answer a given challenge
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  from different angles, explaining why each episode I found was uniquely valuable in answering
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  the question, and over time, those little digests just seemed to prove useful,
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  and as they did, I collected them to one document on my computer,
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  and at some point I realized I could do this with the broader archive,
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  and so I set aside two years of my book research and writing time.
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  I identified our most popular episodes from our first decade. That was the
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  easy part. This type of podcast really offers us a feedback loop like no
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  other. You know, the audience asks the questions, and then the audience
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  responds to the episodes that we record. So it's very easy to see what
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  topics most resonate with our audience. And so I just basically isolated our twenty
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  eight most popular topics and created basically twenty eight huge digests of seven hundred and
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  fifty episodes and one comprehensive guide to help find episodes that you need when you
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  need them. It was a huge project. There were times early on when
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  I wondered if this was a good idea or not. But now it's done
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  and I have high hopes that this book will prove useful. Saint Clair Ferguson,
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  in his kind endorsement, likened it to Richard Baxart's classic mass book Christian
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  directory. It's an amazing comparison for those of you in the reform world who
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  know what that huge book is is like. And then doctor Ferguson called the
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  APJ book quote one of those rare contemporary books that can be described as should
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  be in every Christian home. Quote. My job dropped to when I read
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  that. I mean, that is an amazing endorsement of the book, but
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  even of your deep labors in this podcast two pasture John, I mean each
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  episode being that careful expression of about an hour and a half of your study
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  and thought in prayer, saturated in the Bible. That's a huge investment and
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  a ringing endorsement of your investment. And then Kevin Deyong, another friend of
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  ours, said, quote, I can't imagine any Christian who wouldn't be helped
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  by and fascinated by the hundreds of topics covered in this amazing resource. Again,
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  that highlights the value of having a printed guide that you can easily thumb
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  through and browse. It's a unique way, I think, to appreciate such
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  a long running podcast like APJ. So if these kind words are accurate,
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  and I have high hopes that this book is going to serve listeners to help
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  them benefit from the archive in the years ahead. I can't wait. I
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  can't wait to see what the Lord does with this. And Pastor John,
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  as you consider what this new book will offer the podcast in the near future
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  and in the distance future, what would you add to this conversation. You
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  know, when people say nice things about our teaching, we could easily overlook
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  what makes us tremble in this project, namely, James three verse one.
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  Let not many of you become teachers, for you know that we who teach
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  will be judged. That means judged by God with greater strictness. Wow,
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  But you and I involved in this constant teaching ministry take heart from God's word.
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  Isaiah, this is the one to whom I will look, declares the
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  Lord, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
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  So we believe God will look to us. He will smile upon us
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  because of Jesus, and because we don't play fast and loose with his word.
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  We tremble at the very privilege of knowing His word and speaking his word.
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  Teaching is what we do. It's our calling. It's a dangerous work.
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  It's a trembling work. But oh what a happy work. It's a
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  happy work because we get to spend untold hours immersed in God's word for the
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  sake of God's people. And Jesus said these things I have spoken to you
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  that your joy might be full. And then he told us to go share
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  what we've heard, and added, it is more blessed, more happy to
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  give than to receive. So it's been a happy work, Tony. You
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  can bear your own witness to the joys of facing amazingly two thousand episodes of
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  APJ and selecting distilling them into a usable manual of Christian Council. But I
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  want to bear witness about the joy of watching that happen. It really has
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  been astonishing to watch. For ten years. I have watched you evaluate questions
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  by the thousand, record answers, edit recordings, record or host the podcast,
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  and schedule the episodes. Now, that's one source of joy, and
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  it's big and solid, just watching those competencies that God has given you put
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  into action for His glory. But the skill that our readers are going to
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  see in this book, this synthesizing skill, is of another order. Weaving
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  hundreds of one thousand word answers into topical, coherent, readable chapters, has
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  inspired still inspires my happy admiration and thankfulness to God. So thank you,
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  Tony for the investment of ten years of your life on the podcast and two
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  years of your life on the book. It has been a precious partnership.
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  Clearly, you and I both believe in the value of the written word and
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  the spoken word. You've reminded me of that over and over again. But
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  the peculiar nature of this kind of audible conversation that we have. We've seen
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  lives captivated for Christ through both writing and speaking. We pray for that to
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  continue to happen through both You and I both love to write, right,
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  we are writers. We get our thoughts out on paper with joy. It
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  is in our God designed bones. But neither you nor I will surrender the
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  living voice. Yes, because the living voice carries the affections of the heart
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  more effectively than the written word. And we believe that New Christ exalting affections
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  of the heart are the goal of this ministry, the goal of books,
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  the goal of speaking, the goal of desiring God. I believe it's the
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  goal of the Bible. Christ exalting affections, so ask Pastor John. The
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  book and the podcast aim to impart new affections. That's what we want to
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  happen. We aim at a miracle. We hope that you are listeners will
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  hear and read our hearts. There is a happy melody there in our hearts,
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  a God centered Christ exalting, Bible saturated happy melody, and we hope
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  you hear it and that it becomes the melody of your life. That is
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  one point. Thank you, Pastor John. I appreciate that we want the
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  living voice captured in this podcast to bless people around the world for years and
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  decades to come into that end. We have two prayers now with this book.
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  First, we pray that this book helps you who are listening to us
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  right now. You who are listening, we want you to better navigate our
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  over two hundred hours of audio to find the episodes that you need when you
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  need them, and the episodes your friends need when they need them. I
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  think we can help you better serve others if we can help you find your
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  way around the archive better. So that's prayer one. Prayer two is for
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  future listeners to this podcast, those who are not listening right now, they
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  can't hear me right now, they're not listening to me, who have not
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  even started listening. Imagine an audience of people who have never listened to APJA
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  that will come online and listen to our content in future years and decades.
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  Millions of people right now, that's not an overstatement. Millions of people right
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  now don't know that this podcast exists. People in our churches, in our
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  neighborhoods, people at work, people wrestling with suffering, people asking the most
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  important questions in life. And I want them to see quickly the ground that
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  we've covered in the first ten years of the podcast so that they can benefit
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  from the archive immediately. So those are our two prayers, and I put
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  them in the introduction to my new book when I wrote this quote. As
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  we build this podcast into a single content library, our first decade lays the
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  groundwork for everything else to come. For current listeners. The book rehearses key
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  highlights from the past for future listeners. The book is an on ramp to
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  summarize the ground we've already covered. The book will immediately serve thousands of current
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  listeners who found their way from the podcast to the book. That's you If
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  you're listening, hearing about the book for the first time. You're moving from
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  the podcast to the book. But perhaps, if the Lord is gracious,
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  the current will reverse in due time and thousands of readers will find their way
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  from this new book to the podcast. That's our prayer. As you gift
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  this book to not yet listeners, you're helping us fulfill this dream. In
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  answer to that prayer. Think of this book I write as a podcast promo
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  made of paper and ink that you can physically hand to others. That thought
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  thrills me. I can't wait to hand out copies of this book to produce
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  new listeners to the podcast, to share with others this happy melody, this
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  God centered christ exalting, Bible saturated happy melody of what this podcast is.
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  What a joy? What an honor to be able to do that? Okay,
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  so where can you get copies to launch this new big read Ask Pastor
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  John book. We are again partnering with our friends at Westminster Books. Wtsbooks
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  dot com is where you can find them online. Support a wonderful Christian bookstore
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  and get discounted copies of Ask Pastor John seven hundred and fifty Bible answers to
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  life's most important questions right now at wtsbooks dot com. I have been honored
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  to be your podcast host for over a decade from behind a microphone, and
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  now to be your podcast host in a new book format is a new joy
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  for me. Whether by microphone or by book, I am your host,
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  Tony Rank. We'll see you next time.