Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Call to Worship

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Every week we gather for worship, and we move through the same order of service. But after a while, do we realize what we’re doing? We’re going to look at each of the elements of our services, so we can understand them and catch ourselves when we’re going through the motions. This week let’s look at the call to worship: what does it mean to be called to worship?  In Psalm 147, we can see 1) what we’re called to do, 2) why we’re called to do it, 3) how we’re called to do it, and 4) when we’re called to do it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 24, 2008. Series: Liturgy: What we do in Worship. Scripture: Psalm 147:1-20. 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.

If you attend a church regularly, have you ever paid attention to the structure of the worship service at your church? Often we move through the same order of service each Sunday, but do we realize what each aspect means? Today, Tim Keller is preaching about liturgy, that is, about what happens during worship and why it's helpful to our understanding of the gospel. The scripture this morning is taken from Psalm 147, verses 1 through 20. Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God.

How pleasant and fitting to praise him. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding has no limit. The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make music to our God on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds.

He supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse nor his delight in the legs of a man. The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise your God, O Zion, for He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfy you with the finest of wheat.

He sends His command to the earth, his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He sends his word and melts them. He stirs up his breezes and the waters flow. He has revealed his for no other nation. They do not know his laws. Praise the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Every week we gather at Redeemer for worship. And when we do, we

move through an order of worship each week and we we first are called to worship and praise after which which we confess our sins after which we listen to the teaching of the scripture the reading and the teaching of the scripture the God's word, after which we respond and we receive his benediction and we're dismissed into the world. So each week we follow these elements in the order of worship. But every week we do it, every week we do it,

every week we do it, and do we realize after a while what we're doing? I got a memory from when I, at my first church in Virginia, I remember visiting a family and their home was right next to train tracks. In fact, somewhere between 12 and eight feet, their living room wall was from the train tracks. And I didn't even really think about it when I got there,

but I remember sitting in the living room and the first time the train went by and it felt like it was going right through the living room. And I went, whoa, what's that? And I remember the man I was looking ‑‑ I was talking to said, what's what? He had been there for 20 years. And you know, you would think like you would ‑‑ you couldn't get used to an engine coming literally, almost literally, almost literally, right through your living room.

And the answer is it happened all the time. It happened all the time. After a while he didn't even hear it. So do you know what a call to worship is? You know what confession is? I mean, it happens and it happens and are you doing it? Or do you understand it? What we're going to do is do a very brief five week series

in which we're gonna look at each of these elements and just drill down into them so that we can understand them and we can kind of catch ourselves going through the motions so that we can more actively and meaningfully participate in worship. Now this week we're gonna look at the call to worship and which is what every worship service always begins with.

What does it mean to be called to worship? What are you being called to? And here in Psalm 147 we've got one of the great calls to worship, and let's take a look. And we're gonna see here what we're called to do, why we're called to do it, how we're called to do it, and when. What, why, how, and when we're called to do it and when. What, why, how and when we're called to worship. So first, what we're called to do.

Now, you know the command which begins and ends the psalm and it is a command. In English is three words praise the Lord at the end praise the Lord. That's the call to worship. But actually it's a command to worship. But actually, it's one word in Hebrew. What we're commanded to do in Hebrew is to hallelujah. That's the one word. And it's got two parts to it.

First, the word hallel, and what's hallel mean? In Hebrew, hallel means to boast, to glory. First, the word halel, and what's halel mean? In Hebrew, halel means to boast, to glory in something, to be proud of something, to take your boast in it. Many places through the Psalms, you see this phrase. The phrase is, my soul makes its boast in. My soul makes its boast. What is that? My soul makes its boast. What is that?

My soul makes its boast. That's what Hallel is. Some years ago, Michael Musto was covering Fashion Week for the Village Voice, and he said this about it. Fashion Week is the period of ritualized yearning in which people jockey for visibility while hoping that nearness to a runway will purge them of that nagging feeling of soullessness And

Yeah, he was being catty about fashionistas, but he was also being fair because did you notice he didn't say their feeling of soullessness See he said that nagging feeling of soullessness. What does he mean? Deep down in every single person's heart, in our souls, we feel that our life is not worth living, that we do not have value or significance unless we're connected to something of value and significance. In this case, a runway.

But see, the point he's making, and the point the scripture makes is, every single human being has got to boast in something, has got to glory in something, you've got to ground your own glory and significance and value in something. You've got to connect to something of significance. And we may do it, we may connect it to the runway, which means to look good or to be near people

who look good. Or we may connect it to the money or to our careers or to something else. We might even connect it to the fact that we're those decent people who really don't wonder about, bother about all those things, you see. We're the few decent people who aren't taken with all that,

but you're grounding your glory in something. Everybody says, because I'm connected to this, because I've achieved this, because I've got this, now I'm something important. And that's Hallel. To praise is to root, ground, boast in something. Every soul does it. But the command is to hallelujah way.

It's praise the Lord in Hebrew means to praise, to make your souls boast in Yahweh. Now the word Elohim, the Hebrew word Elohim is a word for God, but it's a generic word that means the great omnipotent God. But the Hebrew word Yahweh is the personal name for God that God revealed to Moses and to us in the burning bush when he was entering into a covenant relationship

with his people. Yahweh is the name he gives to the people or is the name he asks people to call him who know his saving love. And therefore the call to worship is nothing less than this. It's a command for you and me to recognize what our soul is boasting in. Is to see what our soul is clinging to, dreaming about. All the things that we're dreaming about and looking to, whether it's our credentials or romantic love or money or success or looks or whatever.

And the call of worship is to recognize where the fingers of your soul are and to pull those fingers off and to ground your glory, to root your identity, your confidence, your hope in this fact. And this is what the whole Psalm is about, that this Lord of the universe who knows the stars, knows them all by name

knows you loves you That's your glory that's the boast that's got to be the ultimate boast of your heart and Every call to worship is a call to do that You know the great call to worship as far as I can see in the Bible is in Jeremiah Jeremiah 9 worship, as far as I can see in the Bible, is in Jeremiah 9. Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on the

earth, for in these things I delight," declares the Lord. That's what hallelujah means. It's a command. It's a call to worship. So that's what we're called to do. Secondly, however, we're also given here the reason or why we're called to do it. And it's in the second part of this first verse.

Praise the Lord. Why? Because it's good, because it's pleasant, and because it's fitting to praise him. Now, isn't that amazing? You should praise God, you should adore God, because it fits. Yes, it's a command. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. You must. But why? Because it fits. Fits what? Fits what? Fits God and fits you. Fits God and fits you. Look, first of all, it fits God. The word fitting is a fascinating word. Praise and adoration is fitting.

If you have an old King James Bible or if you have an American Standard Version or one of the older versions that use a little bit more archaic language, it will say there, his praise is comely which again is an old word that actually means beautiful and that is exactly what the Hebrew word means the Hebrew word that's used here is a word that usually describes absolutely fabulously beautifully glorious faces, beautiful faces. And what it's saying is, worship is not just finding God useful, but finding him beautiful.

And until you find him beautiful, you're not worshiping him. What does that mean? I mean, it's all through the Bible. Like Psalm 27, one thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.

What is this about? Okay, here. If you believe God is a fact, there really is a God who created and sustains us. Let's just say, so you believe in him as a fact. If he's a fact, then you're gonna have to deal with that fact. If you want fair winds in your life,

if you want blessing, if you want your prayers answered, if you want to go to heaven when you die, you're gonna have to deal with him. So what do you do? So you believe in him, and you obey him, and you pray to him, and you come to church.'s one of the things you've got to do. Why? Because if you do these things with him then all these things that will make you happy

will come to you. That's the idea. Ah! But to find God useful which is to think of him as a means by which you get the things that will make you happy is not the same thing as to find God beautiful. Because when you find God beautiful, you are recognizing the fact that he himself is the only thing that will make you happy whether you get any of these other things or not. And to not see him as beautiful, to only see him as useful as a fact and not as beautiful, isn't fitting. It doesn't fit him. It's not true to who he is because

he's not just great and big, he's glorious and he's loving and he's gracious and he's wise and he's exquisite and he's beautiful. and he's exquisite and he's beautiful. Now, every dictionary that you can look up, whether it's a philosophical dictionary or just kind of a general usage dictionary, will say this about beauty. Beauty is a perceptual experience of pleasurable satisfaction

that satisfies the mind and the heart on the spot. It's a perceptual experience of pleasurable satisfaction that satisfies the mind or heart on the spot. Let me give you a perfect example. It's near the end of the summer, and you know what? A lot of us, a lot of you, a lot of us, have spent a lot of money just going and sitting in beautiful places.

Some of you spent a tremendous amount of money, just so you could sit on a porch or on a balcony and look at a mountain or an ocean. Lots of money. Why did you do that? What is there? You just sat there and you watched and you looked and you drank something and you talked to people

and you watched and you looked. And you, I'm spending thousands of dollars just to look at something beautiful. Well I want to ask you a question. What was it you got out of that? And the answer is you didn't get something out of it, you got it. Because to see that, to sit and just look at that

and to be in the presence of that was a pleasurable, satisfying experience of the mind and heart. It was filling, it was nourishing, it was edifying, right, on the spot. Well, let me give you another example. In itself. Let's just say you have two relationships, and one is a business associate.

Now, you don't like this business associate, and this business associate doesn't really like you. However, you're both making quite a bit of money together. So you work together, okay? And then the second relationship is a relationship with a person who is in love with you and you are in love with that person. When you spend time with a business associate,

you're not gonna do a lot of chit chat. You're not gonna talk about your problems. You're certainly not gonna, you're not gonna talk about life. You're not going to talk about your problems. You're certainly not going to. You're not going to talk about life. You're going to say, what are the goals of this meeting? What are our outcomes? What do we want to get out of this meeting? You don't want to have a meeting unless you know we're going to get something done.

So the relationship is nothing. It's just a means to an end. Results. Ah, but with a lover. You know, you don't say, well, what are the outcomes of the two hours we're about to spend? What are our takeaways? What are the action steps?

Why do you want to see me? The relationship is an end in itself. You're not getting together to do something or go somewhere, though you might, but just to be together. And you probably don't want to talk about stuff. You want to talk about each other and your relationship. And you're going to spend a great deal of time telling the other person, telling each other

how great they are, how beautiful they are, how brilliant they are. You know why? Because it is the praise that completes the enjoyment. because it is the praise that completes the enjoyment. Now one of these kinds of relationships corresponds to a form of prayer called petition. And one of these kinds of relationships conforms to a form of prayer called adoration.

And the way you can tell whether you're a person who finds God, you believe in the fact of God, and because you believe in that fact of God, you are obeying him and you're praying to him, you know, coming to church, you know, and you're obeying him and you're believing everything, but you don't find him beautiful. You find him a means to an end. He's a business associate, not a lover.

You know how you can tell? When you do pray, it's filled with petition. You do lots and lots of petition. There's lots of things you want to ask for, and in some cases, confession, where you want to get things straight so you know that the relationship's okay, that he'll continue to answer your prayers.

But when it comes to adoration, what is that? You don't do it. You certainly don't initiate it. You couldn't do it for a half an hour. You couldn't do it for an hour. You couldn't do it. You don't think of doing it. You want to know the outcomes.

That's not fitting. It doesn't fit. Adoration, praise, fits. That's not fitting. It doesn't fit. Adoration, praise fits God. But then secondly, it also fits you. It's not just fitting to give God praise and to see Him not just as useful but beautiful because that's the only way to really give Him what He's worth. It's the only thing fitting for who He is.

But it also is something you desperately need, believe it or not. Praise isn't just right, it's something you've got to have. Why? Well, Augustine, of course, says it famously in the first page of the Confessions where he says, Lord, you made us for yourself and therefore our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you. And what that means is we were created to praise God. We were created to to see his face and to worship and praise and adore and serve him. And if we don't do that then we're something's wrong with us. But what does that really mean? How does that really work? Ah like this. You need, here's what's weird, you should never go to God because he's useful, but only because he's beautiful.

And yet, there's nothing more useful than finding God beautiful. And once you decide not to worship him or go to him because he's useful, but just because of who he is, there's absolutely nothing that's more life-transforming than that. This month, we're excited to let you know about a brand new resource based on Tim Keller's best love books. Go Forward in Love, a year of daily readings from Timothy Keller, features a short passage each day from one of Dr. Keller's books to use for daily reflection. Each day's reading offers deep insight, biblical

wisdom and spiritual encouragement. The passages are meant to lead you into worship, help you reflect on God's attributes, and encourage you to live more missionally. Go Forward in Love is our thanks when you give to Gospel in Life in December. To receive your copy, just visit www.gospelinlife.com slash give. That's www.g gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us share the love of Christ with more people. Iris Murdoch was a British philosopher and novelist. I think most people know her as a novelist,

but she was also a philosopher. And probably the thing that she wrote that is the most famous of her philosophical essays was an essay called the sovereignty of good. And in it she makes a ‑‑ she does a thought experiment. Now, this isn't ‑‑ she's not thinking of herself because she had no children. I think she's thinking of someone she knew. Here's a thought experiment. She says, imagine a mother-in-law who is a very, very proper British matron. And she is deeply distressed about the girl her son has married. Why? Because this is a quote, because she is unpolished, lacking in dignity and refinement, inclined to be pert and familiar,

insufficiently ceremonious, brusque, sometimes positively rude, and always tiresomely juvenile. You have to be a proper British matron to even say that or think that, okay? But the mother-in-law is not at all happy about her condition. She doesn't like the fact there's been a kind of alienation between her and the son and the daughter-in-law is not at all happy about her condition. She doesn't like the fact there's been a kind of alienation between her and the son and the daughter-in-law.

And so in order to do something about it, she begins to say maybe the problem isn't in the daughter-in-law, maybe the problem is in me. Maybe she says she's too certain that her sensibilities are the only right one. And maybe even, maybe, she's open at least to the possibility she's jealous. So she begins to try to think differently. She begins to try to get out of herself, out of her self-centeredness, sort of away from the self-absorption and to sort of try to see it from someone else's point of view or a daughter-in-law's point of view.

And next thing you know, things get better. Why? In her mind, she begins to realize, quote, that her daughter-in-law is not so much vulgar as refreshingly simple, not so much undignified as spontaneous, not so much noisy as joyful, not so much tiresomely juvenile, but delightfully youthful. And so on and It heals she gets out of herself and she gets out of her self-centeredness and she begins it heals the relationship and Iris Murdoch says that's great. How does that happen?

She says that's now Iris Murdoch was not a Christian. She was a neo-platinist. However, she really gets something exactly right here It's the principle that we're trying to talk about she says something amazing She goes off and she goes on and says we are anxiety ridden animals to get something exactly right here. It's the principle that we're trying to talk about. She says something amazing. She goes on and says, we are anxiety ridden animals. Our minds are continually active, fabricating an anxious self-preoccupied falsifying veil which partially conceals the world.

What a great way of talking about what Luther talks about. Martin Luther says, we are homo curvatus se, which means human nature is curved in on itself, sense of self-centered. She says, we are anxiety-ridden animals, our minds are continually active, fabricating an anxious, self-preoccupied, falsifying veil which partially conceals the world.

What are we going to do about that? And she says, the main thing that has ever been able to blast her out of that and get her liberated from her falsifying veil of self-centeredness and self-absorption is experiences of beauty. And she goes on and says, I was looking out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind, brooding on some damage done to my prestige. And then suddenly I observed a hovering kestrel.

Now a kestrel was a European falcon that can hover absolutely stationary far above the ground by turning into a headwind and hovering there. And it's just a beautiful sight. And the beauty of it smothered her heart. And then she said, in a moment everything is altered. The brooding self with its hurt and vanity has disappeared.

There is nothing now but the Kestrel. And when I return to thinking of the other matter that was so bothersome to me, it seems so much less important. She says, now of course this is something we may do deliberately if we want this benefit. We may deliberately turn to a perfection of form which invites unpossessiveness and resists absorption into the selfish dream life of the consciousness.

Now she's absolutely right. Every single human being has got this veil of falsification around us, the selfishness that keeps us thinking about ourselves and our hurts and our perspective only. And it makes our lives miserable. And the only thing, she's right, in saying what breaks you out of that

is an experience of beauty. When you're looking at it, it lifts you up. When you turn back to the thing that was so big, it looks so small. But how much more than a beautiful falcon could your life be changed by this? Psalm 19 says, the sun is beautiful, the sky is beautiful, the seas are beautiful. Why? Because they're telling of the glory of God. See, everything that's out there that's beautiful is beautiful only

derivatively. It reflects the beauty of God. God is the source. Everybody else, everything else has just got echoes of it, just got dim hints of it, just got shadows of it. What kind of transformation, what kind of liberation from the prison house of our self-centeredness can happen if we even begin to glimpse the beauty of God, to experience the beauty of God? That's a dynamite that'll blast you out of any dungeon.

You need it. You must have it. So why should we praise the Lord? One, because it fits God. Worship is not merely finding God useful, but finding him beautiful. And two, because it fits us. Beauty gets us out of ourselves

and erodes self-centeredness. We're built to praise God. We need a sight of his beauty to be healed. Thirdly, okay, well how? See, some of you are probably sitting here thinking, I hope, I mean, if I've been any good at all, I hope some of you are probably sitting here thinking, I hope, I mean if I've been any good at all, I hope some of you are saying, I guess I do find God just useful. I guess even when I come to worship I just am kind of doing it because I feel like I've

got to do it. How do you move from seeing God as a business associate to seeing God as a lover. Here's how. The rhetorical heart of the entire Psalm, I think, is verse 10 and 11. And it's a fairly famous passage in which it says, his pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man. The Lord delights in those who fear him who put their hope in his unfailing love." Now, you know, one of the really

great Bible commentator, Hebrew and Bible scholar was Peter Craigie. And Peter Craigie, by the way, was Scottish. And he remembers in his commentary on Psalms, he actually remembers that when he was 10 years old, he first came upon this verse See his delight is not in the legs of a man And he said oh my goodness does that mean God is against wearing kilts? Bothered him very much, you know at least for guys and He said however when he came into the fullness of his manhood and he learned Hebrew and he learned interpretation of the scripture,

he was able to say, fear not, O Scottish listeners. This is not what the verse is about, but here's what it's about. In ancient times, it was nothing more thrilling than to see your own country's army, to see rank upon rank upon rank of men in armor. See, the muscles on their arms and legs bulging, the sun on their spear tips and on their swords

and on their helms, and their chariots and their horses, the strong horses, and you would look at your army and you would say, ha, now, everyone's gonna have to kneel and bow to us, everyone's gonna have to respect us, look at our strength, and the whole point of the psalm is God does not respond to human strength. He does not delight in human strength, nor should we. He does not delight in muscles. He does not delight in strength,

in morality. He doesn't delight in that. He delights in people who are humble, who fear him, which means they depend completely on him, and who hope in his unfailing love. Now this is the Greek, pardon me, this is the Hebrew word, kesev, which is the word for covenant love. It means unfailing, steadfast, it means unconditional love. It's put on you and it's there forever.

It can never fail, never fail, why? Because it's and it's there forever. It can never fail. Never fail, why? Because it's not based on your strength. Your strength will fail. It's not based on your performance, your muscles, your morality. It's based on God's action and his grace. It's unconditional, it's free grace.

And he says, he says, you must set your hopes on my unfailing love, not in your own strength. And when you transfer the hope of your heart from your works, your heart from your works, your effort, your performance, human strength, to his grace, that's what turns him from a business associate into a lover. And here's how it works. Kathy was a, we rented a DVD of a movie called The Martian Child starring John Cusack.

And it's about a little kid who's been abandoned by his parents and so he's very messed up and he stays in a box and he wears sunglasses so nobody can see him and he thinks he's from Mars and he's pretty messed up. John Cusack, widower, adopts him and tries to love him. And it's a whole story about tries to love him. And it's a whole story about trying to get him out of his shell.

So Kathy started watching it, I started watching it, I said, yeah, okay, I got it, I figured it out, okay, nice story. So I left and went into read while she watched the rest of it. But I could hear, at the very end, the kid goes out on the ledge and everybody's scared and John Cusack has to try to get him off the ledge. So he gets up there and he begins to speak. At the very end of his speech he says, I know these other people, your parents abandoned you, but he said, nothing will ever, ever change my love for you.

And I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever leave you." I heard that, you know, and I said, Oh my word. I mean, here's the voice of John Cusack giving me exactly what God says in his covenant. Because Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5, it says says, if you read it in the English translation, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 it says, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. Oh, man, I hate almost every English translation because in the Greek there are two negatives in the first clause and three negatives in the second clause. And what God is saying is to those upon whom

he's put his grace, those whose relationship with him is not based on the legs of a man or on the strength of a horse, but on his sovereign grace and his action, he's saying, I will never, ever detach myself from you. I will never, ever, ever forsake you. And after the movie was over, I went into Kathy and said, oh, I heard that, I figured that out, and that's really sweet, and of course, the boy hugs John Cusack, and it's a happy ending, but we looked at each other because we're parents. And we know two things about being parents.

Yeah, parents do say that, and we mean that. But two things, one is, when you get to be parents of our age, we have failed our kids, we have failed. There's all kinds of ways in which we failed our kids. But here's the other thing, we're gonna fail our kids. Why? We're gonna die. You know, Psalm 27 verse 10, David says,

though my father and mother will forsake me, the Lord will bear me up. He doesn't say, if my father and mother forsake me, they will, why? They're human beings, they're gonna let them down and then they're gonna die. Nobody, nobody can look at you and say, I will never, ever, ever, ever forsake you.

Nothing will ever make, nothing will ever change my love for you. It will go on forever, except God. Only God can say that. Your heart needs to hear that from somebody and you're desperately, you're so happy when somebody says it to you, especially if it's John Cusack, especially if you're on a ledge at the time. But only God can actually

say it and have it literally be true. Well, now why can he say that? After all, we fail each other and we fail God, don't we deserve to be forsaken? The answer is in that little word forsaken at the very end of Hebrews 13, five, when God says to us, I will never forsake you. It's the same Greek word that Jesus Christ uses on the cross when he says, my Father, you've forsaken me. How can God, a just God, be just and never fail us? How can a just God be just, and yet look at us,

sinful people, we let each other down, we let him down, and still say, I will never, ever, ever fail you. Because on the cross, Jesus Christ took the rejection we deserve, the Godhead itself absorbed the penalty for our sin, so he can be just and still say, I will never fail you never And that's it. This is what turns him from a fact into a lover from a business associate into a beauty What is it to know the Lord of the universe who knows the stars by name at infinite cost to himself?

Loves me delights in me There is an honor greater than a congressional medal of honor. There is an honor greater than a king saying, come up and sit on my throne. You can boast in that soul and you can gaze on that beauty and that will change you. Nobody else can say what God can say and God can only say it because Jesus Christ died on the cross to give that to you. And that is the key to praising Yahweh. One more thing. When do we do this?

Now I've just said we are supposed to see God not as useful but beautiful. We need that more than anything else. The gospel helps us see him not just as useful but as beautiful. We need that more than anything else. The gospel helps us see him not just as useful, but as beautiful. Okay, in fact that's why we're serving him now, not because if we serve him I'm gonna go to heaven because in Christ I'm saved. I've already got it by grace.

Now why do I wanna serve him? Just because I wanna look like him. I want him to delight him. I want him to smile on me. I wanna give him pleasure. It changes everything. Okay, when are we supposed to do that? And you know what?

At the very end of the passage, the people of God are called Jacob. Often in the Psalms, God calls his people Jacob, oh Jacob this, oh Jacob that. Why doesn't God ever say, oh Abraham? I mean, after all, they're all descended from Abraham, aren't they? Why does he say, oh Isaac? They're all descended from Isaac, aren't they? Jacob!

You know, if you go back through the story of Jacob, and I did, because I had to preach through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, and one of the things I found when I divided their lives up and I was going to preach sermons on it, you always want at the end to say, now be like Abraham because he did this, or be like David.

You can never say that about Jacob. Because there's absolutely, you go through this entire life, look at every single episode, and not a single one, is he a good example? About the closest we get to him being an admirable person to look at is when he's wrestling with God, that mysterious stranger in the middle of the night, and he realizes it's God, and he realizes that he'll die

if he sees the face of God in the sun, in the sunshine, in the daybreak, and he says, he suddenly says, but I will not leave you unless you bless me, and that's the climax of his life. You know why? Because all and he says, he suddenly says, but I will not leave you unless you bless me. And that's the climax of his life, you know why? Because all of his life he'd been trying to get blessing. He'd been trying to get, he'd been trying to ground his soul in something.

And first he was wrestling with his father, why don't you love me? And he was wrestling with Laban, why don't you love me? And he was wrestling with his brother Esau, and he was trying to compete with him. And he was wrestling, and over and over and he was trying to compete with him. And finally, after years and years, he begins to realize that everything I've ever really looked for was in God.

And he says, it might kill me, but I realize now that if you don't bless me, I'll never get one. This is what I've been looking for all my life. All the things I've always been looking for are in you. And God calls us Jacob. What does that mean? It's a humbling and a comforting thing. It's a way of saying, you're not gonna get,

you're not gonna break through to praise. You're not gonna break through to beauty. You're not gonna break through to me tomorrow. It's not gonna happen in a week. It's not gonna happen in a year. This is the reason why you need to keep coming back. This is the reason why it says make music. One week you come in here and it's not the sermon,

it's a passage in one of the hymns that kind of goes to your heart and you say oh, and you get a glimpse of his beauty and the next week it's a part of a sermon, it's the next week it's something somebody says to you when you're talking to them before or after. You need to gather in worship and you need to say, eventually I'm gonna break through into praise.

The Psalter, you know, goes through the Psalms, go through everything. They go through laments and confusion and everything, but they end in 146, 147, 148, 149, 150 in praise. Why? Because God will get you there. It may take a lifetime, but God will get you there. So pray and praise and realize what's happening when you're called to worship. Let us pray.

Thank you, Father, for showing us again what's available to us. We just come and we let these words wash over us. We come and we let these opportunities just go right past us without grabbing them and using them. And we ask that every time we gather for worship, you would help us be completely aware of what is possible and what we're there to do. And we ask that you would help us to see your glory and give you glory.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. We hope you were encouraged by it and that it gives you deeper appreciation for God's grace and helps you apply His word to your life. You can find more resources from Tim Keller by subscribing to our quarterly journal at GospelofLife.com. When you subscribe, you'll receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Today's sermon was preached in 2008.

The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.