Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

We’ve already asked, “How do you become a believer?” and “How do you know you have become a believer?” We looked at the great story of Naaman the Syrian and his conversion. We’re now going to ask, “How can we be sure we are formed as believers?” How do we make sure the beliefs we have in our head actually form and shape our entire lives?
The general answer over the centuries that the church has given is prayer. And the more specific answer to, “How do we know how to pray?” has been the Psalms. What we’re doing here by giving you the first psalm and the last psalm, the bookends as it were, is I’m about to give you a crash course in prayer and particularly prayer as it’s given to us and taught to us in the Psalms.
Ready? Fasten your seat belts. Very few of you brought your helmets, but that was my fault. I didn’t let you know last week. So the three headings are the way into prayer, the way through prayer, and the way all true prayer must end: in praise.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 23, 2012. Series "Gospel in Life: Grace in the Case of Naaman". Scripture: Psalm 1:1-6; 150:1-6
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.

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.

We’ve been looking at the ways in which an experience of the grace of God creates a new inward character and a new interior character of the heart. We now come to the end of the series and return to the same passage on which we started, 1 Corinthians 13.
What we’re going to do is we’re going to look at the end of this passage in which Paul tells us that the key to developing that interior supernaturally changed heart is to look to the future, to look to something that’s going to happen in the future.
This passage, in verses 1–6, tells us about a problem. Then, verses 8–13, at the end, give us the remedy. Then, verse 7, right smack in the middle, gives us some insight for how to use the remedy. So there’s the problem, the remedy, and how to use the remedy.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 24, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
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.

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.

Up until the twentieth century, the traditional cultures have always believed too high a view of yourself is the real root cause for most of the evil in the world. This is still true in most cultures of the world. Why do people abuse others? Why are people cruel? Why do people do the bad things they do? Traditionally, pride–too high a view of ourselves–is the reason why we misbehave.
In the modern Western culture, particularly in the United States, we have an utterly opposite cultural consensus. The basis of our education, the way in which we treat incarcerated prisoners, our legislation, and certainly the basis of our counseling is exactly the opposite of the consensus of all the other societies that have ever lived. Our belief today is people misbehave for lack of self-esteem, because they have too low a view of themselves.
What’s intriguing about this passage is it gives us an approach to self-regard, a way of seeing yourself, that is utterly different than traditional cultures or modern, postmodern contemporary culture. The three things we’ll learn here and that Paul shows us is the natural condition of the human ego, the supernatural condition–the transformed sense of self and identity Paul discovered–and lastly, how to get it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 24, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:21-4:7.
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.

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.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 27, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Ephesians 4:29-5:2; John 15:12-15.
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 traditional moral training, how do we teach people to be honest? How do we encourage them not to lie? It goes something like this. We say, “Don’t lie, or you’ll get caught.” “Don’t lie, or society won’t work.” The more religious approach is, “Don’t lie, or God will punish you.”
Therefore, in traditional moral training, you’ve only restrained the heart, not fundamentally changed the heart. You haven’t changed its character. Instead of dealing with the roots of dishonesty, you’ve just jury-rigged it so it makes people honest. But it’s artificial and temporary. Only for a heart that feels absolutely loved is a lie unnecessary and therefore unnatural.
Therefore, it’s only an experience of grace of God through Jesus Christ that changes the heart rather than restrains the heart.
We’re looking at the marks of a supernaturally changed heart and how each one is cultivated in Christ. Paul makes a list of these marks of a supernaturally changed heart, and we now come to patience. So–why do we need patience? What is it? How do we get it?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35; 1 Corinthians 13:4,6.
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.

We’ve been looking at the gospel of Luke, but we really can’t leave it unless we look at this theme that is all through the gospel of Luke and all through Jesus’ teaching … the kingdom of God. We really can’t leave until we understand better what that is, and it’s not easy to get that across. Many of you have heard the term kingdom of God for a long time, but can you put in a nutshell what it is? It’s not that easy.
One philosopher says a kingdom is the range of your effective will. If tonight somebody gets into your purse and takes something out or somebody gets into your backpack and takes something out, you’ll be outraged. Why? Because there has been an intrusion on your kingdom, on a place where the way you want things to be ought to reign supreme. There has been a violation of the range of your effective will.
What does it mean, then, to put yourself within the range of God’s effective will? What does it mean to put yourself under his effective will? That’s what we’re going to be looking at, and this particular parable tells us it means at least four things. To live in the kingdom of God is to get a lasting identity that goes on for eternity and is marked by astounding liberality. Finally, we have to ask, “How do we get that?”
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 4, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 16:19-31.
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.

I believe it’s in the crucifixion account that Luke comes to us and says, “I’ve given you all of this information, but how will you respond to it? I’ve given you this information, but how do you take it in?” When Jesus says, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing,” what he’s saying is, “Father, they’re looking right at me, and they don’t get it. They’re looking at what we’re doing, they’re looking at your salvation, they’re looking at the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world, and they don’t get it.”
Here’s what Luke is asking. Do you get it? Luke is saying, “You have information, but is it real to you? Do you get it?” Everything you need to respond to Jesus in a life-transforming way is right here.
We see all of the people rejecting him, the whole sweep of humanity. We see both the leaders and the common people rejecting him. We see both the Jews and the Gentiles rejecting him. Everybody. Peppered through all this rejection are four parties who respond differently, and if we look at how they respond, we’ll learn how we should. Let’s notice three things: who gets Jesus, how they get Jesus, and why they (and, therefore, we) can get Jesus.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 27, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 23:33-56.
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 chapter 9 of Luke, Peter comes to realize, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is not one more in a row of prophets and teachers and sages. He says, “You are the Christ of God. You are the Messiah. You are the one who is bringing the kingdom of God, the ruling, healing, power of God, come back into the world.”
What’s interesting is the minute his identity is revealed, he immediately begins to say, “Follow me.” Chapters 1 to 8 are all about, “Who is Jesus?” but we’re going to find chapters 9 through 18 are all about, “If he is this, what does it mean to follow him? If he is who he says he is, what does that make us? If he is that, what does it mean to follow him?” The word follow is the key word for the next nine chapters, and this chapter lays out the basics of it.
This chapter tells us what it means to be a disciple, in the most basic way. That’s what the whole passage is about, and there are three sections we’ve taken out of this chapter, three basic principles that will help us understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It means setting a new priority, it means finding a new identity, and it means living a new mercy. All three are critical, and they all fit together.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 9:20-25; 51-62.
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.

If you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you’ll always find at the climactic, pivotal place in the narratives of each of those gospels, the transfiguration is the final answer to a question that is continually posed in each of their early chapters. That question is … Who is this? “Who is this, that the wind and seas obey him? Who is this who forgives sins?”
The transfiguration is the climactic answer in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So to look at the transfiguration is one of the key ways you’re going to know who Jesus is, what he came to do, and how to connect to him.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 2, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 9:28-36.
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.

Jesus comes and heals what’s wrong within us and what’s wrong between us. We’ve talked about that previously. But now we ask, “What’s the ticket for that healing? How does that healing come into our lives?” The answer, of course, is a well-known answer. It’s faith, but what is faith? How does it come? How does it work?
This whole chapter is about that. The two people he mentions are at the extreme ends of the social spectrum in that time and place. You have a woman of the street. You have a Roman centurion. And yet, the bottom line of the very first story is great faith. And the bottom line of the second story in verse 50 is: “Your faith has saved you …”
In the strongest possible ways, Luke is saying, “No matter who you are, no matter what your condition, no matter what, faith is the key.” These stories, these accounts, have been given to us to teach us something about that faith. Here’s what we can learn. We can learn how it comes, what it is, and where it takes us.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 7:1-10, 36-50.
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.