Christians have all of these great beliefs, yet the beliefs we have don’t automatically produce changed character. That’s the reason there are so many people who profess Christianity who are just as selfish as everybody else. Beliefs don’t just produce character. Beliefs have to be turned into character through practices, through spiritual disciplines. Today we’re going to be looking at how we are supposed to use Scripture, the Bible, in our lives. Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible (176 verses), and it’s all about the practical uses of Scripture in our lives. If you want the Scripture to be used in your life to translate beliefs into character, then you have to recognize its majesty, tap its power, and unlock its secret.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 20, 2008. Series: Practicing The Christian Life. Scripture: Psalm 119. 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.

An awful lot of people who believe in God are as messed up and as selfish as everybody else. Why? Because beliefs don’t automatically create changed character. You have to turn beliefs into character with something in the middle. Between beliefs and character come spiritual disciplines or Christian practices. Unless you understand what those practices are and unless you participate in them, you will not actually change your character.  The second most commanded Christian practice in the Bible is one that when you see it, you usually don’t even realize it’s a command. We’re commanded to sing God’s truth, to sing God’s praises. Ephesians 5 gives five things that flow from being filled with the Spirit. Of the five results, three are about music. If you do not learn how important it is to sing God’s praises regularly with others, to listen to God’s praises sung, you will not be changed by the gospel.  Why would music be that important? Let’s take a look at Ephesians 5, especially in light of the entire history of music in the Bible. We’ll learn the power of music (what it does), the grace of music (what it can do), and the future of music (what it will do). This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 13, 2008. Series: Practicing The Christian Life. Scripture: Ephesians 5:18-21. 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.

We’re starting a new series on spiritual disciplines, or Christian practices, like gathering for corporate worship, private meditation and prayer, the disciplines of simplicity and generosity, reading the Bible in community, and spiritual friendship.  The best way to introduce the series is to plunge into the first Christian practice, the first of the spiritual disciplines, which is worship. We’re looking at Psalm 95, which is called the Venite. In Latin, venite is the first word. It’s “O come.” It’s probably the best single place in the Bible to go if we want to understand what worship is all about.  In this Psalm, we’re going to learn three things about worship: why we should, what it is, and how it’s done. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 6, 2008. Series: Practicing The Christian Life. Scripture: Psalm 95:1-11. 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.

As we come to the end of the book of Jonah, we can ask ourselves the question, “What’s this story about?” Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist? It’s not Jonah who is the protagonist. It’s not the fish who is the protagonist.  It all comes down to this last question in the passage. In the last question, God says, “Should I not have compassion? Should I not love that great city?” This is what the story is about. It’s about God, who is the protagonist, seeking to bring grace and love and mercy to a big city. The antagonists are the religious, moral people who believe in God and who obey his commandments. It’s us. It’s city-disdaining, city-phobic, religious, moral, good people. We’re the antagonists, and God is the protagonist. The book is about God’s love for a big, unbelieving, unjust, violent, pagan city.  So, what are we supposed to learn about the city from this book? I suggest we learn three things here: we learn about God’s call to the city, God’s view of the city, and God’s love for the city. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 14, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11. 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.

The book of Jonah is awfully relevant to our situation, especially today. Jonah has been asked to go to the capital of Assyria, the great rising, emerging imperial world power. It  was a violent place. It slaughtered helpless people. Jonah’s response to that is anger. He wants them punished. He is angry at them for their violence. Yet, in one of the great surprises in all of biblical narrative, there’s probably no more surprising turn than what we see in this book.  God refuses to accept either the violence of Nineveh or the poisonous anger of Jonah. Let’s take a look and see what this text tells us about violence. First, the surprising sources of violence. Second, the remarkable strategy we should take with violence. And then lastly, the ultimate solution for violence. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 7, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 3:1-4:5. 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.

We continue to see the relevance of Jonah’s situation and the story of Jonah to our own. Jonah was a prophet and he had a relationship with God. He was a preacher. He had faith. He had an understanding of who God was and who he was. He was moving along in his world just fine. Then his world changed, because God came to him and said, “Now I call you into a new ministry, a new situation. I want you to go to Nineveh.” Ninevah was a violent, ruthless, imperialistic nation. It was, as it were, a clear and present danger to the very existence of Jonah’s country. He was filled with disdain, hatred, bias, and bigotry. To use the technical theological term, Jonah freaked out.  What we see next is that Jonah has a spiritual breakthrough. He moves to a new level. Let’s look at four things we can learn from Jonah through this experience: the key to spiritual transformation, the method of spiritual transformation, the marks of spiritual transformation, and the continual need for it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 30, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 2:1-3:3. 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.

Jonah is a prophet. God has come to him and told him to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the implacable foe, the implacable enemy of his country. “Go to that city and preach against it. Warn them about God’s anger.” What Jonah does, of course, is he runs away. He refuses to do it. He goes in another direction. Jonah’s on the run. Why? Because Jonah has fear in his heart. He’s afraid to go to Nineveh, because–why put himself in the very midst of his enemies?  We’re going to see what the Bible says about fear by noticing three features of the story: the stormy sea, the religious sailors, and the willing substitute. The stormy sea is who we are. The religious sailors show us the wrong thing to do about it. And the willing substitute is what to do about it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 23, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 1:4-17. 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.

The book of Jonah is really one of the best possible places to get an overview of what the Christian message is about. This passage is about sin. But it doesn’t actually ever use the word sin. And yet, not only does it profoundly map out the real nature of sin, it gives us an understanding of sin that goes deeper than what you’d think the definition of sin is.  It’s one thing to believe in sin. It’s another thing to understand it and understand your own heart. We’re going to take a look at four features in the narrative, and each one is going to tell us something about sin. The four features we see are in verse 1. We see the coming word. “The word of the LORD came …” In verse 3, we see the running man. In verse 5, we see the deathly sleep. And lastly, we see the stormy hope.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 9, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-10. 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.