Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

When people say, “I’ve tried prayer, and it didn’t work,” what Jesus is saying is, “You used prayer, not the way I designed it, but with a false model of spirituality.”
For Jesus, the importance of prayer is revealed in a little unobtrusive word at the beginning of this passage in the Sermon on the Mount: the little word “and.” Right before Jesus talks about prayer, he talks about our engagement with the poor and the needs of the world. Then he says, “And when you pray …” Because in Jesus’ understanding, it’s the people who are characterized by the most radical interiority who have the most courageous, visionary engagement with the needs of the world. And before Jesus gives us a model of prayer, the famous Lord’s Prayer, he tells us two other models of prayer that we should avoid. 
Let’s look at 1) the two false models, 2) the true model, and 3) a few practical ideas on how to go about it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 9, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 6:5-13.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If we actually take the gospel, the essential message of Jesus Christ, and we live it out, what will it look like? That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is about. 
And in this part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we get to the area of money and possessions. 
Jesus tells us three things we can draw out here: 1) how money exercises power over us, 2) why money exercises power over us, and 3) how we can break the power.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 2, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

On the surface, one of the most unattractive things about Christianity to our culture today is its view of sex; but if you look underneath the surface and get a better grasp on what is really taught, the Christian view of sex is one of the most attractive things about it.
In other words, a lot of people see the Christian understanding of sex as undermining its credibility to them, but when you look down deeper, I think you’re actually going to see the Christian view of sex is one of the evidences for its truth. Because Christianity accounts for how sex operates in our lives, in our relationships, and in our society.
Let’s draw out four things Jesus is saying about this in the Sermon on the Mount: 1) there is such a thing as lust, 2) what it’s not, 3) what it is, and 4) how it can be healed.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 25, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Do you understand what your heart is really like? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is saying that the reason we’re inauthentic or hiding from other people is because we’re actually being inauthentic with ourselves, hiding from ourselves. We’re deeply uncomfortable with the reality of our own hearts.
Jesus wouldn’t mention hypocrisy in the Sermon on the Mount unless he thought it was a pervasive issue, something we’re all struggling with. Jesus says this is the way we are, that there’s a real problem and the human heart desperately wants to get into image management.
Let’s look at how Jesus shows us 1) two manifestations of hypocrisy, 2) how you can’t stand to see what’s in your own heart, 3) how you know the plank in your own heart is huge, and 4) how to remove the plank from your heart.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 18, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Luke 6:39-49.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

As soon as you hear the word relationships, right away you say, “Ah, relationships,” and you think of friendship or romance. But the main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to talk about our relationships to other people, to those outside of our close relationships.
Right away, Jesus talks about three groups of people. And when we see how Jesus calls us to be toward them, we’re immediately shocked and upset. Many of us will say, “First of all, I can’t do it. And if I did, it sounds terrible.” And almost as if Jesus knows we’ll say that, he tells us three things.
Let’s look at 1) the three groups of people: people who oppose us, people who are less fortunate than us, and people who are different from us, and then 2) the three things Jesus tells us: the difficulty we have, the inner dynamic we need, and the directions we’re given.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 11, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Luke 6:27-38.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What is the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus?
In 1 Corinthians 15, there are three basic things Paul says about the resurrection as he answers three questions.
We must confront these three questions about Jesus’ resurrection: 1) did it happen? 2) what did it accomplish? and 3) what should we do about it?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 4, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, 20-26, 51-58.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Christianity is utterly different from religion.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says there are two paths—one that leads to life and one that leads to destruction. And here’s what the scary thing is: both ways have people praying, giving to the poor, obeying God’s law. You can do all that and still be poison, on your way to destruction. Don’t mistake Christianity for religion.
Jesus says if you want to be in the kingdom of heaven, there’s a gospel goodness that vastly surpasses religious righteousness. How does it surpass? Gospel goodness 1) brighter, 2) deeper, 3) sweeter, and 4) higher.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 28, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 5:11-20.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Every other revolutionary who ever lived was really only trying to rework or reshuffle the same old kingdom. Except Jesus.
A kingdom always has three things. It has a pattern of values, a power to implement those values, and a product or impact. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ shows us that the pattern, power, and product of his kingdom are wholly and utterly different than the kingdom it replaces.
What are those two kingdoms? We’re looking in Luke 6 at 1) the old right-side-up kingdom, and 2) the new upside-down kingdom.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 21, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Luke 6:17-26.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What can the music of John Coltrane tell us about the relationship of  art to God, and of our own work in general to God?
We can all learn quite a lot from Coltrane, actually. And what we can see in his approach to his music applies not just to musicians and artists, but to us all.
In this open forum, 1) Tim Keller shares two things we can learn from Coltrane, 2) John Patitucci, a jazz bassist and composer, discusses Coltrane’s music, and 3) Keller and Patitucci hold a question-and-answer time with their audience.
This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 2007. Series: Redeemer Open Forums. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In Ecclesiastes, the author takes the position of a practical secularist. And he asks, “If this life is all there is, then is life meaningless?”
The writer says if this life is all there is, if there’s no God and no meaning that you have to submit to, then you’re free to construct your own meaning. And so, he sets out to build meaning by living a cause-based life, and then by living a pleasure and beauty-based life. When he finds those both to be meaningless and burdensome, he decides to create a work-based life, to let work and career be an organizing principle in his life.
In doing this, he finds three things: 1) that a life of work is not worth it, 2) why it’s not worth it, and 3) what is worth it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 23, 2003. Series: When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Today’s sermon comes from a series on the life of Jesus described in the gospel of Luke. Luke gives us many of Jesus’ teachings on what it means to be a disciple. In short, a disciple is one who applies the gospel to absolutely every single area of life.
In Luke 6, we learn about Sabbath rest. God gives us rest from our labors – it is a gift and a blessing. It is a way of keeping us healthy and protecting us from being overwhelmed by our work. God himself modeled it for us when creating the universe. Let’s look at it more closely: Why do we need it? Where do we get it? How do we do it?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 23, 2003. Series: The Meaning of Jesus Part 2; Following Him. Scripture: Luke 6:1-11.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Consider how much of your time, how much of your life, is built around your work. Yet, so many of the books and materials that look at what it means to live as Christians only focus on our evenings and our weekends. How are we to be a Christian on the job?
We’re going to look at some basic principles of what God says we must do to approach our work and our jobs in a Christian way.
Looking at Ephesians 6, we see that this passage knocks down two false views of work: 1) that work is a curse and leisure is the meaning of life, and 2) that work is the meaning of life. And then we’ll see 3) how you get the power to transform your view and aim of work.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 3, 1991. Series: Work & Faith. Scripture: Ephesians 6:5-9.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Some of you may know I was actually a teacher at graduate school seminary for five years. Then I said, “Get me back in the ministry,” where there is no grading papers and no one knows whether people are learning or not. But the gospel changes everything . . . even education.
We’re looking now at the what’s, why’s and how to’s of education reform from a Christian perspective. 
To consider a gospel-centered view of education reform, 1) I’ll share two thoughts from C.S. Lewis, and 2) I’ll be joined by a panel of educators for a question-and-answer time.
This talk and Q&A was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 5, 2004. Series: Redeemer InterArts Fellowship.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you’re Christian, what is the rationale for being an actor? Why should Christians be actors? How should Christians who are actors or writers or choreographers or directors think about their faith and their work?
To answer that, we need to look at the power of stories, at why we connect with and are overwhelmed by strong stories.
Let’s consider 1) what a story is, 2) that we attach meaning by connecting things to a storyline, 3) that Christians can find elements of their story in almost any other story, and 4) why we need to understand our baseline cultural narratives.
This talk and Q&A was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 5, 2004. Series: Redeemer InterArts Fellowship.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The gospel affects how you do your work, how you do your job, and how you pursue your vocation. But how? 
If we’re going to understand what Paul says in this passage, we need to look at 1) some background work and historical context, 2) practical principle number one, 3) practical principle number two, and 4) the power to carry them out.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 17, 2010. Series: The Gospel and the World. Ephesians 5:21, 6:5-9.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

How does the gospel affect your work? 
We’re in a series where we’re asking, “What happens when you take the gospel, the basic message of Jesus Christ, out of the church and into the world?” One of the things that happens is it affects the way in which you do your work. And there’s no way to see the Christian understanding of work without going to Genesis 1, 2, and 3.
I’d like to show you three things Genesis tells us about your work: 1) it gives you a vision for work, 2) it gives you guardrails for your work, and 3) it gives you a power to do your work.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 10, 2010. Series: The Gospel and the World. Scripture: Genesis 1:26-28; 2:2-17.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When we talk about creativity, we mean artists of course. But we also actually mean entrepreneurs—whose creativity is as important to what they do as anything else. So thinking about creativity, what does Christianity have to say to it? The answer is a lot. 
Your deeper beliefs about the meaning of life and the world actually does shape your work. The Bible says the world was created, has fallen, is being redeemed, and is going to be restored. How does that affect or shape our creativity? 
The Christian understanding of creativity is that creativity is something you do 1) because you want to, 2) out of love, 3) in full knowledge of the risk and the cost, and 4) knowing that there will be satisfaction.
This talk and Q&A was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 16, 2010. Series: Center for Faith and Work.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

How can practicing the law be shaped by the Christian faith? And how can we reimagine lawyering?
If you’re reimagining the legal profession, you don’t want to just be a Christian who happens to also be a lawyer. You want the way you practice the law to be shaped by your faith. 
For this reimagining, we need to understand three things from Christian theology: 1) that every human being is called to be a gardener, 2) that the law is a form of gardening, and 3) that you need to figure out your own idols.
This talk and Q&A was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 2007. Series: Center for Faith and Work.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

A lot of people have an incredibly negative view of marketing and advertising. Not too long ago, I heard somebody say that advertising is the first profession: in the Garden of Eden, the serpent said, “you need that apple.” They were saying that marketing is creating need in somebody else for your profit, whether they really need it or not. 
On the other hand, you could make a case that marketing is the oldest profession because of when the Bible says, “in the beginning was the Word.” God invented communication. And in many ways, at its best, that’s all marketing is: communication.
So let’s look at  1) what marketing is, 2) what’s wrong with marketing, and 3) how you can integrate the Christian faith with work in marketing, advertising, and promotion.
This talk and Q&A was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 4, 2005. Series: Center for Faith and Work.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The Bible says probably 20 times more things about money than it does about sex, maybe more than that. So if you’re trying to know the Bible, you’re gonna know a little bit of something about money.
We all have our own filters. We all have mental maps, assumptions about God and the universe and human nature and what’s important in life. It’s what we call a worldview. So what is the Christian worldview when it comes to wealth creation?
The real question is whether wealth creation is good or bad or halfway in the middle? And we’ll see that the Bible is more nuanced on that answer. In the Christian worldview, wealth creation 1) is not bad, 2) is not good, and 3) is not something in the middle.
This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 27, 2004. Series: Center for Faith and Work.
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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.