Joel Osteen Podcast - Conversation with Joel & Victoria: Peaceful on Purpose Part 2

Episode Date: May 29, 2021

Peaceful on Purpose, the new book from Joel Osteen, shows you how to shift from worry and stress to rest and trust in Almighty God. When you’re peaceful on purpose, you know God is always working on your behalf. He can turn any situation around for your good!Your best days are still ahead, and together we can make a difference in this world with the message of God's hope and love.To give visit JoelOsteen.com/GiveHope Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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is an SEC registered investment advisor. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities, nor is it investment, legal, or tax advice. Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry. If you enjoy today's message, why don't you be a blessing and share it with a friend?

We appreciate you and pray for God's very best in your life. Another question again, you know, you talk about your dad a lot in your messages. Is there any key attribute that you feel you've taken from his life, you know, that you'd go, that could apply to everybody. You know, something you've learned that could apply to anyone.

A couple of things, Nick. One, my dad had a great love for people. I think that's what taught gave me that, a compassion to help people, to lift people. You don't have to be a minister to do that, but he just, he took time for people. He saw the best in people. I never heard him criticize, but I don't, you know,

we'd just, you'd find somebody down and out, and he'd go over and gravitate toward him. He didn't have to, but he's always believing in lifting people and encouraging them. I think that's what Lakewood was birthed out of, and that got put in me as well, that just we're here to encourage somebody, to make somebody else this day, to be a blessing, and it's easy to get busy, and hey, man, I got enough my own problems, I don't want to deal with

yours. But you know what, he taught us to take time for people, to keep your heart of compassion over and open and to be good to somebody. I think the other thing that would maybe be relevant to you it was to me is my dad was a man of integrity. I saw him stay on the high road, a lot opportunities to do things. It wouldn't even have been bad, but he always took that high road and just, I was impressed with his integrity. And, you know, for God to trust you with more, you just have to, you know, make good decisions when nobody's watching and do the right thing. And, you know, it's worth it to go the extra mile.

And hey, maybe nobody will know about this. And it's an easy shortcut. But I think, you know, people may not see it, but God sees it. When you live with integrity, it allows God to entrust you with more. But those were a couple characteristics of my father and just working with them all those years. It was interesting. Yeah, I would say faithfulness too. I mean, I think that is. And I talked about it the other day.

I don't know if y'all watched on Mother's Day, but we did a recap because Lakewood's 62 years old on Mother's Day. And so we went back to the old church. But I think about, see, my dad was a Baptist minister for many years before I was born. and he left the church in 1959 that he was pastoring to start another church because there was something there that, you know, he thought he had bigger things in him. So he went after being a very successful pastor

and he started Lakewood and it just had 90 people. And you probably heard me tell the story, but for 12 years Lakewood had less than 200 people. So it didn't really grow. And my dad had pastored these large Baptist churches and he was doing really great. Now it looks like he went from here, way down to here. But I was,

I wasn't born in 59, but growing up, you know, I remember my earliest memories are being in church with a hundred people, but I just remember how looking back how my father was faithful preaching to those hundred people like he was preaching to thousands and thousands. And I just saw him, you know, week after week. He didn't take off. He never missed a Sunday. He was just faithful. And so here's my point. There was no growth during that time, but in 1973, 13 years later, the church started to grow. And it went from you know, a couple hundred to a thousand to four thousand, you know, to many, many more. But I believe that faithfulness, that was a time of testing, a time of proving. And I think we all face that. There are times you're doing the right thing and nothing's happening. So,

well, I've been believing, and I've been doing the right thing. It's been six months. It's been a year. I've been praying. I don't know how long it's been, but you know what? That's a time of testing. It's a time of proving. I don't know if I'd be here today. I don't think I would if my dad would have just slacked off and thought, okay, I tried and God, I was up here, I went down, what happened? He just kept being faithful, kept doing the right thing when the wrong thing was happening. You don't know how that's getting you prepared. Every day you pass the test, you're getting, you're getting ready to go higher. You're giving God permission to do something awesome in your life. So, you know, I call it the proving seasons and the testing seasons.

And not to equivalent myself to my dad, but the 17 years I was behind the scenes. I did my best to make my dad look good. Never even dreaming I'd be up here one day. I'm just saying, be your best where you are. I said it earlier, but you keep being your best where you are. Because I think sometimes we think, well, I'm not getting any credit. You know, somebody's stealing my ideas at work or I'm doing the right thing in this marriage and nobody says thank you. But you know, you're not working under people.

You're working under God. You keep doing the right thing because your time is coming. There will be doors that God will open that you never dream would open. He's a faithful God. is you continue to be faithful. I believe they'll show out in your life. So good. Anything that you would, anything to speak on personally, like how do you stay fresh? How do you, you know, you guys have a lot that you're doing, a lot of, you know, things, opportunities come your way. You know, questions from, you know, a man who says, you know, I run a business and have a lot

of plates that I'm spinning. Yeah. How do you refresh? How do you recharge? How do you pace yourself? What does that look like for you guys? I don't know if you want to even dive into your weekly schedule or not, but just any thoughts there. Yeah, you want me to go. I'll go. I'm doing all the talking, but it's your book. It's my book, y'all.

You know, everybody's different. But one thing that I like to do is, well, first off, my schedule, I speak maybe four weekends, and then I have a week where I'm not speaking because preparing to speak takes me a lot of energy. So I pace myself, Nick. I try to pace myself. I would love to speak 52 weeks a year,

but I can't do that and stay healthy and stay fresh. So you have to know what fits for you, what works for you. I have friends that pastor, if we're talking about pastors, some of them take off a couple months in the summer just to get refreshed. I like to split mine up and go, you know, four weeks. And I'm not saying I'm off every four weeks, but I'm not speaking. That allows me to do other things and to freshen up. I think on a daily more of a regular basis,

I like to, what helps me to stay fresh is to get some exercise to get outside. I went for a long bike ride today because it was a busy, busy day yesterday as my book launch. We started early and worked late. So I think just taking time for yourself because you're not, you know, we're three part being. We're spiritual, emotional, and we're physical. And I think you have to keep them all in balance. I mean, I can go pray all day and work all and speak every Sunday and be great. But if I'm not physically good, I'm not going to be as, I'm physically healthy, I'm not going to be as good as I should be or emotionally. So I just encourage you to take time.

Whatever works for you, you know, to me it's getting outdoors, doing some exercising, going to play tennis, going ride my bike, Jonathan and I'll go work out. But I like, rather than sit at home at night sometimes, I'd rather go for a walk or something just to be outside. So that helps me because I think, I alluded to it, but it's easy to work all the time. It's easy because we're all busy. You have children, you got work, you got projects, you have dreams, but it's not healthy. I don't think you'll be the best that you can be.

And so that's what helped me, Nick, because you know what, I got this opportunity God's given me. God, I want to be my best for you. It's easy to be busy 24 hours a day, but I realize I'm going to be my best if I'll take time to stay healthy, to stay refreshed, and to take care of your temple. And I think one thing that I've observed with your life in leadership is it takes just as much faith to say, as it does to say yes. And I think what I've observed from your life is the ability to say no to things that you don't feel comfortable with or at peace about that come your way.

And I know many people, they get opportunities, whether it's business, birthday invitations, come to this, come to that, but you have the consistent ability to say no so that you can be your best and you can sustain and go the long haul with your calling and with your purpose. And I find that all, I mean, it's amazing. Yeah. It's important to be able to say no and to know what you're good at and what your limitations are because we all have them. And even when my dad passed and we started getting some notoriety and people started watching

and well, I have all these friends that I grew up with that are pastors. And they asked me to come speak for them and this was early on. And I thought, you know what, I can barely speak on Sunday for Lakewood. And these were good friends and they all understood. But I, you know, I didn't go speak anywhere for, you know, I have. haven't really spoken hardly many places except the Knights of Hope except at Lakewood. And I don't mean not doing it selfishly. I've done it for a few friends. But it's just that, you know, knowing where to put your energy, where you're going to be the most effective. And my personality

type is to want to please everybody. I'm nice. You know, you want me to do something. I want to go do it just because I don't want to tell you no. You want me to go help you move. But I realize I had to come to a point where I say, you know what? I got to protect what God's given me. You have to protect what God's given you. And I think that's a bigger way to look at it to say, okay, God, you say, God, you've given me this gift. He's given you a gift, whatever it is. And God, I'm gonna protect it,

I'm gonna be the best that I can be because when we come to the end of life, you're not gonna answer to people. People put their demands on you, and somebody wants you to do this and make you feel better if you don't do this. But you know, you're not gonna answer to people, you're gonna answer to God.

And I've learned you can be respectful, but you can, you know, you have to be able to say no and run your race. And I think Nick, if I can just touch on that, because I think it's important too. It's one of the core things that I believe brought me to where I am is when my father died,

he had pastored Lakewood for 40 years. And so all of a sudden, he died suddenly at 77 years old. I knew I was supposed to step up to pastor the church and I did. I didn't know if I could minister, and didn't know if I could, you know, you've heard that story. But one important part is when everybody came,

I knew they were coming because my father, because he had been there for 40 years. So I thought, Joel, they didn't come to hear you. So you better be like your father. You better preach like your father and lead like your father and do everything like your dad. And I loved my dad and I respected him. But we were different personalities.

My dad was a, you know, more fiery and he was raised Baptist and just came out of a different generation. He was 41 years older than me. Well, you guys know me. I'm more quiet and reserved. I don't have this big booming voice and I'm not gonna get up there. And but that's what I felt like I had to be.

in the first month or two, I thought, okay, I'm going to try to be like my dad. And I realized that, you know what, that's not who I am. And about six months in, I read a scripture in Acts, it says, David fulfilled his purpose for his generation. And it felt like God said to me, Joel, your dad fulfilled his purpose. Now go fulfill your purpose. In other words, quit trying to be him. Quit trying to run his race. You can honor your dad. It's the same message, but it comes out of me a little bit different. I mean, I realize I'm not as traditional as a pastor as some pastors are. My dad, he might teach the book of Romans or Colossians where I'm talking about subjects and life. But that was my, I believe that's my gifting, is lifting people, encouraging them, inspiring them, talking about

how to forgive, how do I have peace and purpose and things like that. Well, when I stepped into my own shoes, that's when everything began to grow. Awesome. And that was some barriers I had to break in my own mind of not trying to be like my dad. And I've got people over here telling me to do this. and you've got to do it this way. We've been here for years and years. This is the way the church is supposed to. And I always did it respectfully, but I thought, God, I'm gonna run my race.

I'm gonna answer to you and I'm gonna do what I feel like is in my own heart. And again, not, I wasn't disrespectful to anybody. I was firm though, as nice as I am. I think, you know what? I didn't say it, but that's what you want me to do, but no, I want to be who God called me to be. That's awesome.

I'm gonna run my race. And when I did that, you know, doors begin to open. And it goes back to, man, I'm going long, you're going back to you're anointed to be you you're not anointed to be anybody else you'll never become who you were created to be you know trying to be what somebody else wants you to be or trying to copy somebody else you got to flourish in your gifts and your gifts don't have to be as big as somebody else I mean I know preachers that are much greater preachers than me they're they're fantastic I celebrate them

but that doesn't make me feel inferior I just do what God's called me I'm gonna be the best me that I can be nobody can beat you at being you. So be you, you're anointed to be you. It's awesome. Again, thank you for joining this book-Semillion virtual event. We're talking about Joel's new book, Peaceful on Purpose. A lot of personal questions again coming in about just how you prepare. You know, is there a certain, you know, how do you prepare your sermons, messages? How do you come up with the ideas? How do you come up with the topics? Is there anything you want to speak to as it relates to that? Well, yeah, I don't want to bore you, but I just, you know, I feel what's, I got them, what is today? Today's Tuesday. I don't know what I'm going to share this weekend yet, but on Thursday, I'll go to my office and I'll read over my notes and I take time every morning to pray and read my Bible and just, but on Thursdays, I try to really get quiet and say, okay, what am I feeling? And something always jump out. And so that's what I do. And I listen to, you know, I listen to see.

I read, I, you know, just different things. I try to take Thursday to just let it be a day of really peace and putting into me. I may go for an hour or to walk and just listen to CDs or just take that time to pray or just, you know. So anyway, then I do that. Then something comes out, they don't get up on Friday and I write out what I'm going to say. And so I just, that's the way I've been doing for 22 years. It's amazing. It used to be so hard, but now it's better.

I've learned a little more. but I try to always grow. I don't want to be here. I want to be, I believe I'm better today than I was three years ago because you learn and I think that's a key. Let's, you know, let's keep growing. We're not supposed to reach one level and stop there. And so that's what I do. Anyway. There's a chapter in here called All As Well. It's the first chapter of the book. Just any thoughts on this idea of living all as well, knowing it's all as well. Yeah, it comes from the story in the book of first or second kings where this lady had a son. And for some reason, I feel like he's around 10 years old, but he had a seizure or accident or something. And he was, you know, he stopped breathing. So this lady was a friend of Elijah the prophet. You can read about there in the scripture, but she got on an animal and she took off to see Elijah who was in another city. And she was, yeah, she was friends with Elijah.

So several times people stopped her along the way. and said, is anything wrong? You know, why are you coming in such a hurry? Each time she answered all is well. The truth is, all wasn't well. She had this, you know, her son. She didn't know if her son was alive, but the principle of that all is well.

Let me finish the story. Elijah came and prayed for him. The little boy came back to life. So all became well. But she spoke all as well before it was well. And I think sometimes you know, hear this Joel, I'm how can I be at peace? I got this medical report.

I got this situation in my relationship or in my, in my, in my, finances, it doesn't look good, but I believe you have to speak to yourself. You have to speak to your spirit and say all as well, maybe before it is well. It's what the scripture says, you know, you call things that are not as if they were. And I believe it does something to your spirit, to your mind, to your emotions, when you just tell yourself all as well. And it's not denying the facts. What you're doing is saying, God, I know you're on the throne. This couldn't have happened. You know, you're ordering my steps. And so as you declare that, you're, you're

putting your trust in God. You're showing him. And Nick, it's so much better because the opposite is, I'm going to go around better, discouraged, life's a bummer. I can't believe this happened, worried, panic. No, you've got to come back to the place of peace. And part of that is just speaking to yourself. You may have to say it by faith, all as well. How you doing? Well, the medical problem, no, all is well. God's on the throne. He's restoring health back into me. I think it's just an attitude. I like to keep it down in my spirit all the time. You know, a lot comes against us all. You've got, have challenges, we have challenges, people, circumstances, pandemic, what's going to happen, all the what-ifs. Now here's a good phrase, all is well. God's on the throne, hadn't failed me

in the past, he's not going to fail me in the future. Keep that down in your spirit. It even says in Isaiah, say to the righteous, all will be well with you. You're the righteous. I can say that by faith. All will be well with you. The medical situation is going to resolve. The, you know, difficulty with your child, the finances, it's going to resolve. All is going to resolve. All is going to going to be well. So stay in that place of peace. Watch what God is going to do. He's going to bring you through it. You're going to see it resolved. I don't know when. I don't know how, but God does. He's in control. It's awesome. Victoria, there's some questions in here about if you could go back, and this is obviously a question for both of you, if you could go back and tell yourself something when

you were 20, life advice, wisdom, after all the things you've gone through, what would you say? I mean, any advice. No. All is. Stay away from that, Joel. Stay away from that guy. He's nothing but trouble. Yeah.

And that's, don't you wish we could? But yeah, I think, I think kind of what we're talking about, we need to stay in peace. We have to understand that God is working in our life, everything that we've talked about. Just I have a tendency to project way out in the future. And I have a tendency to. try to solve problems that haven't happened yet or you know I just don't want any roadblocks once I get there you know and so I've really had to learn how to reel all that in and sometimes I'll be so far out in the future I forget to enjoy today that's great and so I've learned that a lot I would love to say you

know what let's focus on today because today's really all you have and yes there are things that you may try to avoid in the future plan I have more of a strategic kind of mind I'm like Joel says, you're just like, you go too deep into everything. You're just like, you can't even watch a show without going deep into it, but that's just who I am. Yeah. And so I've had to learn to work with who I am, but I think I would just say, you know, enjoy more of the moments. And really you squeeze out of them all that are there for that day. And because tomorrow's going to, the Bible says it has enough problems of its own, you know.

And you can't fix all those. You can only depend on God. I think, Nick, I would tell myself to trust more because, you know, it's just, it's easy to worry and probably more so when we got the, when we started the ministry side of it, because, you know, starting to learn how to minister and never dream we would be doing this. And all of a sudden, 1999, our lives changed. And so, you know, the first few years is anybody going to come? Are you going to know how to preach?

Or then all of a sudden we got that Notre Dame, there's more people that are against us. Oh, maybe the critics are going to win. A lot of stuff to worry about. When we're trying to get the compact center, we don't have enough votes. How's it going to happen? But I look back of it now times that, you know, I did my best, but there's just times you just, you know,

you just feel stressed and you can't sleep. You wake up in a cold sweat, what's going to happen and all that? But I realize now God brought me through them all. He was in control. He's directing an order in our steps. So now I just, I live from a much more of a place of peace and of trust. And that is, you know, God hadn't felt, failed you in the past, he's not going to fail you in the future. And I think we can save ourselves

a lot of worry and sleepless nights if we just trust. And it helps me too. And I mentioned it earlier, but God doesn't always take us in a straight path. It's not always A, B, C, D, E. Sometimes you go A, B, or A to F, and then you come back to B and you think, God, I'm going the wrong way. But God, orders our steps and, you know, sometimes there's curves along the road. So you look and sometimes you think, well, I had this bad break. I was doing so good. Or I went through this long. or something, but you know what? It's all a part of God's plan. He knows how to get you to where you're supposed to be. So those things you don't understand, there's the time to trust. You know, hey, I don't see why this didn't work out. Many things that I've prayed about

and it didn't work out and that I wanted really badly, but you know, you wait a few years and you think, oh, God had a compact center. That's why those things changed. And so there's just these things in life that it's easy to fight and live worried. And I'm not saying it's always easy because you're facing, when you face medical issues, you're, you're, you're or you know finances or job whatever it is not always easy but I'm just telling you it's better to stay in a place of peace and trust something J J.J Moses said he was on the program with us this weekend a friend of ours that went through a situation at work where he was fired unjustly and he's a great guy and but God restored him but during that time that he was not working in in the middle of the

pandemic didn't know he's going to you know take care of his family and all and he had a very prestigious position and but he's one thing he said was how he chose to stay in peace and stay in faith and make declarations. But he made the statement of something like this that he said, if I hadn't have done that, I don't believe this new door would have opened. And I think that's a better way to look at it. Well, I'm not just saying to stay in peace so it'll make you feel better, although that's important. But I believe when we're worried and stressed, it's stopping the creator of the universe from working. So it's not just, hey, it's not just a little thing. Maybe if you come back to peace and stay in peace and trust.

and it may not be that easy, but when you do that, you're allowing God to open up new doors, to vindicate you, to heal you, to turn things around. So make that decision that you're going to stay in peace. You do it on purpose. May not always feel like it, because those thoughts are going to come. Victoria was talking about sometimes she projects way out.

Her personality is to go way out into the future, you know. And it's because she thinks deeper and she's very, she's got discernment, she thinks she's very wise. But she can, her strength can be, become a weakness like all of us because sometimes you can look way out there and say okay wait a minute what if this happens or what if that happens and what if well that's good in a sense because you know you want to plan and like I said she's very wise but it also can be

what if nobody comes back to church after the pandemic and what if the medical report doesn't turn around you don't have grace for tomorrow yes plan be smart but you have grace for today you have to turn that around and just say you know just God I'm gonna live in this moment when you get to that moment you're gonna have the grace that you need for that for that day. But I think another important thing too, Victoria and I were talking about. If your mind does go out there, why do we always go to the negative? Mine does. You know, hey, Nick, what if nobody comes back after the pandemic? Got this big auditorium. What if,

but let's go to the positive? What if it comes back bigger than ever? What if I get here? What if I do get the promotion? What if I do meet the right person sooner than later? I'd rather project out in the in the positive. I think the point is making those stay in the now. We don't have grace for tomorrow. If you're going to be in peace, you have to say, I've got great. for this day. I don't have to figure out four weeks from now. I don't have to figure out a month from now. I can live in the peace and the grace God has for me today. You know, and too, I was thinking when you were talking how sometimes we run into these negative circumstances and we're like, we're just pushing against them. It's like, why is this happening to me? But we've learned that

things have happened to us that God uses down the road. If that wouldn't have happened, we wouldn't have known how to do that. And so I think that's a huge, way to stay in peace. It's like, God, I'm going to learn from this lesson. I'm going to take everything that I can from this. Because God will always use those things. I can think through my whole life how things that were hard. God used them to help me later know how to navigate. We found that with even just fighting for the compact center and things like that. So yeah, I think some of those things we're trying to pray away. God's using them to get us stronger to get prepared for the new things that he has in store. I know this is a verse.

virtual book signing, I have not signed one book, but yesterday or the day before I signed a thousand or so. So if you're going to get a signed book just for being with us today, I appreciate you guys being a part of the ministry and taking this time with us. I wonder how many people are out there that have been to one of our book signings. But isn't it interesting how, you know, even during the pandemic, how we all learned how to use Zoom and how we've learned how to talk virtually. We've adapted to that. Not that we want to do that for us. But thank goodness that we can. And it's like at first we're like, what? But now, I mean, even to be able to be with all of you today and just be able to talk and, you know, we can't see your face. But it's better than not seeing, you know, being able to connect at all. Well, I think it's been great too because people get to see you in a different light. You know, oftentimes at the book sign is maybe they don't get the opportunity to spend a whole hour with you talking about marriage and relationships in life.

And again, how God can work things out for good and we can adapt. This is a necessary and needed book for this time. And I think with all the things that are happening, telling people to be peaceful on purpose is so necessary. Any thoughts that you have as we wrap up the call or want to pray for people as we just, you know? Yeah, I just want to remind you what you hear me say a lot. God has you in the palm of his hand.

I believe that he has something great in store. You wouldn't be watching if you didn't honor God, if you didn't love him. It says he's a rewarder of those that seek after him. So I just hope you'll get your expectations up because I think sometimes we can put things on hold because of the pandemic or because of the, we've got this challenge. But you know what? Many times God wants the odds to be against us on purpose so he can show out. So when he turns it around that it's even a greater miracle. So I think you've got to stir your faith up. We have that phrase, you know, hope again, dream again, live again. It's time to believe again. Get your faith up and get your, get your faith up.

ready for the new things God wants to do. I know that you're a person of destiny. You know, you didn't get here by yourself. It wasn't just your parents. God chose you before the foundation of time to be here on May 18, 2021. You could have lived 200 years ago or you could live, you know, 400 years from now, but God put you here today because you're well able. He chose you. He could count on you. He didn't choose the Apostle Paul for this day or Sarah or Ruth or Moses or David, that was all great. But when God looked down to 2021, he looked in your eyes. He said, that's who I can count on.

So know that you're equipped. You're empowered. You're armed with strength for every battle. Keep your shoulders back. You're a child of the most high God. And I just want to pray for you today. Lord, thank you for all of our friends that are watching today, listening.

Lord, I thank you that you do have them in the palm of your hand. And Lord, those that are, you know, just in difficult situations. I think you, even today, things are beginning to change. Lord, let them feel your peace as they've never felt before. I think that you are turning those situations around with their children, in their health, and their finances. Lord, I think that you're freeing them from addictions, anxiety and depression and the fear of the future.

Lord, I just think even today, just a new thing is happening. Strongholds are being broken that you're restoring what the enemies trying to steal. Lord, let their gifts and talents come out in a new way. Lord, take them where they can't go on their own. You've done it for us. I think that you'll do it for them even in a greater way, Lord. We thank you. I just declare in Jesus' name that you're strong, healthy, blessed, prosperous, redeemed, forgiven, talented, creative, disciplined, focused, prepared, qualified, motivated, valuable, free, determined, equipped, empowered, anointed, accepted, and approved.

Not average, not mediocre. I'm looking at children of the Most High God. In Jesus' name. Thanks so much for listening to today's message. I hope you'll subscribe so you can receive the latest podcast to keep you encouraged and inspired all through the week. Help us to continue to share the message of hope with those all around the world.

Visit Joel Osteen.com or click the link in the description to partner with us today. We hope you'll share this message with a friend and be sure to follow us on social media. We're praying for you. I know God's best is still ahead. We'll see you next time. With millions of books on Amazon,

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