Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

One of the reasons we’re looking at this guy, Naaman, is because he is a lot like the typical New Yorker. He met God. Now let me ask you … Have you met God? Have you really met God? If you say, “Well, here I am. I’m in church. I go to church,” yeah, but that’s what the second half of this narrative, this historical account, is about.

Naaman, who was a pagan, who knew nothing about the Bible, who had absolutely no (what we would call) religious background is converted. He gets a changed heart. But Gehazi, who lives with the prophet, who is probably an apprentice to the prophet, who lives at the very heart of Israel’s biblical religion, who probably knew the Word of God inside out, doesn’t have a changed heart. Naaman meets God with no religious background; Gehazi misses God with all the religious background.

How do you know you’re not missing God? Have you met God? That’s what we’re going to look at. So first let’s look at the marks of a man who has met God. That’s Naaman. Secondly, let’s look at the marks of a man who, in spite of all his religious background, has missed God. That’s Gehazi. Then thirdly, we’ll say how you can be sure to meet and not miss God.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 16, 2012. Series "Gospel in Life: Grace in the Case of Naaman". Scripture: 2 Kings 5:2-3, 15-27.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In this passage, a Syrian general, Naaman, goes to the God of Israel to get help. As we’re going to see, there was an astonishing amount of hatred and disdain between these two nations. But Naaman, the sophisticated, powerful Syrian, goes to Israel and to the God of Israel to get some kind of help, and it’s shocking that such an unlikely person would do that.

What brings a Naaman and what brings a typical person who lives in Manhattan to start to seek the God of the Bible? That’s what we’re going to look at. Let’s notice what we’re taught here: why people seek, how people find, and why people can seek and find.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 9, 2012. Series "Gospel in Life: Grace in the Case of Naaman". Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-14.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, said it is possible to live a completely ethical life without any love at the root of it, but rather, fear, pride and power. What we’re doing is we’re taking a look at the traits of a life that’s not just morally restrained externally, but supernaturally changed from the inside.

This passage is not like the other passages, because every other week what we have been doing is looking at one trait each time. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, integrity, courage, humility, self-control.” Instead of focusing on one trait, this well-known passage from Saint Paul shows us how to know and grow all of the fruit of the Spirit.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 17, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’ve been looking underneath ethical behavior to the marks of supernaturally changed character, a heart that’s changed at the root in its fundamental desires and motivations. Today, we come to a term that’s very important in Greek philosophy and in Greek language. It’s the word self-control.

Think of how much misery there is in our lives because we can’t control our tongue, our time, our thoughts. We make impulsive decisions or use impulsive words, then we wish we could take them back. What’s the solution?

In this passage, Paul says, “I’m going to tell you the secret.” We’ll first look at this subject of self-control in this passage under what I’ll call principles and then under practice. We’ll first look at principles about what the nature of self-control is. Then, secondly, practice some very, very specific ways of going about increasing it in our lives and carrying it out.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 10, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:23-27; 10:11-13.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re looking at what the marks are of a heart that has been changed at its very core. We now come to a trait that is hard to summarize in any one English word. A supernatural heart has its relationship to the truth changed. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says the mark of a heart that has been changed by the supernatural love of God is that it rejoices with the truth.

Paul is talking about something more than ethical honesty. There’s a place where Jesus Christ speaks of his followers as people who are of the truth, sort of made of truth, swimming in truth. Truth is your very element. We’re talking about something really different. What is this?

A supernaturally changed heart has an attitude and a relationship to truth no other kinds of hearts have. Let’s notice in this passage the problem of truth, the encounter we need to have with truth, and something about the practice of truth.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 3, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Ephesians 4:15-25.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What we’re looking at is not the moral behavior Christianity requires, and which to a great degree other religions require, but what we’re looking at is the supernaturally changed heart–the traits or characteristics of a new heart that only the gospel in its peculiar way of relating us to God can produce.

The trait we now come to is what the world calls tolerance. And we have to confront a very, very urgent question. The question is how should you relate, how can you relate to someone whose views and values and practices offend you, distress you? How can we relate to people with whom we deeply differ?

The world says we need to be tolerant, but I want to show you here that Paul says the mark of a supernaturally changed heart is to go way beyond tolerance. There’s something greater than tolerance, something I’m going to call gospel-receptivity–a loving, peaceful receptivity toward people with whom we deeply differ, which is different than tolerance. It’s better than it. It’s greater than it.

What is this receptivity, this receptive grace? Let’s figure out what it’s not, what it is, and how do we develop it.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 10, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:4-11; Romans 15:1-7.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’ve been talking about the fact that there’s a difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally restrained heart. The marks of a supernaturally changed heart are sometimes called the fruit of the Spirit. They’re listed a number of places in the New Testament. We now come to another trait or quality of a supernaturally changed heart: peace. In almost all the lists of these traits, it’s joy or peace.

I want to spend more of my time than I have the last couple of weeks on how to cultivate the trait, because the three disciplines of cultivation here don’t just work for peace. They really work for all of the character qualities we’re looking at. What I want to do is I want to look at what this supernatural peace is that’s available to us, and then secondly, how we can cultivate it.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 3, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Colossians 3:1-15.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In the first sermon of this series, we’re going to look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 and ask these questions: What is heart character? What is inner love and joy? What is the inner supernatural change in character that God can bring?

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 13, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The kingdom of God is the power of God to readminister your life, rearrange your life in all sorts of ways. We’ve been looking at some of them, and now we look at one last way.

He doesn’t just have you live upside-down and inside-out, but also forward-back. What does that mean? Let’s take a look and see what he teaches us about the power of the kingdom; the practices of the kingdom, and last of all, the provision of the kingdom.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 18, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 12:32-46.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re continuing to look at the various themes of the gospel of Luke. We’ve been looking at how the gospel completely changes the way in which we live.

In this parable, Jesus introduces us to a universal problem, the problem of righteousness. He gives us two guys, each of which represents a particular solution to the problem–one solution which does not work, one which does. Problem; a solution that doesn’t work, the outside-in approach; and a solution that does work, the inside-out approach.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 11, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 18:9-14.

Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.