Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Infallible Joy

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

There’s a whole field now called happiness studies—whole departments in academia are dedicated to happiness studies. And of all the things I’ve read, none of them are as nuanced as what Jesus says. Jesus says one of the main resources his disciples need in life is joy. And he says joy is something he gives. In John 15:11, he says, “I give you my joy that your joy may be complete,” but he doesn’t elaborate on it. In John 16, he gives us more information.  What does John 16 tell us about the joy that Jesus gives? Five things: that this joy 1) is inevitable, 2) is not circumstantial, 3) is thoughtful, 4) is prayerful, and 5) is based on wonder. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 2, 2017. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Power. Scripture: John 16:16-27. 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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Did you know that the Bible is all about Jesus from beginning to end? But sometimes you need signposts to point you to Christ. Today Tim Keller is looking at how we can see Christ and his mission in glory. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelunlife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles about gospel change lives as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at GospelUnlife.com. Tonight's reading is from John 16. Jesus went on to say,

in a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. At this, some of his disciples said to one another, what does he mean by saying, in a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me? And because I am going to the Father, they kept asking, what does he mean by a little while? We don't understand what he is saying. Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, are you asking one another what I meant when I said, in a little while you will see me no more and then after a little while you will see me?

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices, you will grieve, but your grief will turn into joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you, now is your time of grief,

but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy. In that day, you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly, I tell you, my father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language, but will tell you plainly about my father. In that

day, you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the father on your behalf. No, the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. This is God's word. Now, there's lots and lots of, there's a whole field now called happiness studies, you know. There's a whole field now called happiness studies. You know, it's a, there's departments in academia, fields, there's journals, all dedicated to happiness studies.

Here Jesus Christ says, I give to my disciples one of the main resources you need to go out there in life and that is joy. And of all the things I've read and I've tried to keep up with the happiness studies, none of them are as nuanced as this is. Let's take a look and see what Jesus says in this passage about the joy he gives. You know, in John 1511, back chapter ago, we've been going through these parts of the book of John. In chapter 1511, he says, I give you my joy that your joy may be complete, but he doesn't elaborate on it. Here he gives you more information.

So we're looking at what does the Bible tell us about the joy that Jesus gives? There's five things we learn here that this joy is inevitable, not circumstantial, thoughtful, prayerful, and wonderful, or based on wonder. Let's take, first of all, when I say the joy Jesus gives is inevitable. I'm thinking about verse 23. It's a very categorical statement. He says, I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy. Now he's talking to disciples about them seeing him after there was a resurrection. When he's raised in a dead and they're going to see him, he says, when that happens, you're going to get a joy and no one will take it away from you.

Notice how categorical it is. He doesn't say some of you will get joy. He doesn't say some of you. He says, you will have joy. He doesn't say some of you may have joy. He says, you will have joy. And then he says, nothing can take it away from you, which is a fascinating thought.

Because if you've been coming, you know that Jesus also says you will have persecution. In this world you will have tribulation. If the world hates me, they'll hate you. And over and over, Jesus tells them, boy, it's not gonna be easy. The life in this world is tough. And he's talking about suffering all the time.

And then here he says, when I give you your joy, that nothing will take that joy away. And you say, really? Here's what I think he's gotta be saying then. The joy that Christ gives you can be subdued. It can even get swamped by sorrow, but it's never extinguished, and it's never banished, and it comes back. It reasserts itself. It resurfaces. Now, don't forget you have to think, you have to realize we're

not talking about the kind of joy you have at a party. You might say party giddiness that comes with great food and great drink. We're talking about something else. I mean there's a kind of joy, it's like a babbling brook lots of noise but pretty shallow. There's the kind of joy that's like a river which is infinitely deeper than the brook but makes almost no noise at all. And maybe you could think of it like this. You do know people do you not? Who on the surface are very, they're joke a lot, they're always cracking jokes,

they're life of the party, they yuck it up. You know people who are always seeming to yuck it up and yet underneath you can tell that they're really pretty unhappy people. Do you know anybody like that? Sure superficially they're upbeat and maybe even joking a lot underneath. They're sad Christians of the opposite

According to this Christians actually can actually have a lot of sorrow. In fact, I would go so far This would be a different topic. I won't go there now in In some ways, Christians, if we really are following our Lord and we're really willing to serve people way, he did. He was a man of sorrow, he was acquainted with grief. If you're willing not to be too self-protective, get involved with people and the pains and suffering of people, well, in some way, superficially, Christians may be sadder people, but underneath. Whereas there's people who are happy on the surface,

but sad underneath, Christians in the opposite. There's a joy that's deep. It's sort of like a Christian joy goes down into the deepest recesses of the heart. And it, as we're going to see, you can extinguish it. It's there. It's sort of, there's a place in a, there's a place in one novel I once read.

We're talked about a character who looked on the surface like he was pretty unhappy. And lots of bad things were happening. And there was a lot of sadness. But then he laughed in the midst of his sadness. And it says it became clear that under all of his sadness, there was a fountain of joy enough to set a kingdom laughing. We're at a burst forth.

So that's what Christians are. Christians have got to joy. Jesus says, well, I give you this joy. This is a joy that can be some, you know, it can be some mercy. It can be swallowed up for a while by grief, but it never goes away. It's never extinguished. It's deep there underneath everything else, and therefore joy is inevitable. You know how often the Bible talks about this. This is pretty strong. I already told you, John 1511, Jesus says, I give you my joy, but like Romans 14, says the kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit.

Doesn't say brings joy or might sometimes make you have. The kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit, or Galatians 5 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy. I mean, if you have the spirit in your life, joy absolutely comes. It's inevitable. Or, oh, first Peter 1, verse 8, get back to this. Peter is talking to his readers and he says, sometimes we Christians love Jesus so much that we become overwhelmed with an

inexpressible and indescribable joy. Actually the old King James puts it like this. Peter says to his readers, even though you've never seen him, you love him. And you rejoice with joy unspeable, and full of glory. And he wasn't just saying some of you, some of you, you know, spiritual elite types are like that. No, he says, you, meaning you, Christians, you love him. And that means sometimes the joy wells up from down

where God put it when you became a Christian. So this joy is inevitable. Number one, number two, it's not circumstantial. What do I mean by that? It's not based, like the world's joy, on favorable circumstances. So for example, there's a metaphor that Jesus puts right in the middle of this whole passage, and we're going to see, this metaphor does a lot of work for him. But the first thing, let's notice, let's read it, it's verse 21. And here's the metaphor, the illustration, the analogy. He says, a woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born

into the world. A vivid, vivid image. Now I've watched all three of my sons born, so I saw my wife go through this, but you also have to keep in mind, everybody, that Jesus Christ is speaking, be before epidurals. Before anesthetics, before hospitals. When actually labor was in general, probably considerably even more painful than it is right now, the way it's done. And, but Jesus makes, here's what's so fascinating.

He says that she's in pain, she's in the pain of labor, but when the child is born, notice it doesn't say her pain and anguish goes away. I mean, even I can see that the minute the child is born doesn't mean suddenly her body stops hurting. Suddenly everything's fine. No. But it says is the baby makes her forget her pain, which is to say that even though her body still got the pain, the joy of seeing the child grabs her mind. It takes all the mind share.

It's like she's got pain, but she's not even thinking about the pain. Now, the pain doesn't control her thinking anymore. It doesn't have hardly, she can hardly think about it because there's the child. Jesus has Christian joy like that. And what does that mean? Wow, it means at least this, that Christian joy

can coexist with sorrow. And that in other words, it's not like when you have Christian joy, banishes all sorrow. No. The child's being born doesn't banish all the pain immediately. But what it does is it so fills her with joy that the joy gets her through the pain, helps her overcome the pain, keeps the pain from controlling her. And Jesus is actually saying, that's how Christian joy works. You still have your sorrow, but what Christian joy is, it doesn't banish the sorrow or get you to not care or not feel the pain.

Rather, the Christian joy is something that gets you through it. See, the world's joy is based on circumstances. Where's your joy? If you live in this world and this world is all it, there is that you can tell. You don't really believe, or you maybe believe something very vague, but by and large, the world's joy is, my joy is resides and the fact that I make good money, or I've got a great relationship, or I've got a good family, or you're your joy is based on circumstance. So what happens when the circumstance takes, when the world takes that away, what happens when the circumstance

changes, the answer is you go from joy to sorrow. And they're mutually exclusive. You either have joy or you have sorrow, but the sorrow, worldly joy, cannot coexist with sorrow. So I'll just eat it up, just takes it away. And that's all it is. But Christian joy is different.

Christian joy is something that takes you through it or put it another way. If your joy is your relationship with God, if your joy is God's love for you in Jesus Christ, if your joy is Jesus' love for you, okay, that's your joy. Then when sorrow comes, it's real sorrow, but it actually drives you even more into your joy. It pushes you. You know, you have joy in your job, you lose your job, it pushes you more into Jesus. So in some ways, Christian, in the Christian faith, your sorrow pushes you more into joy. Another way to put it is this. You know how you put salt and meat to keep it from going bad?

You know, you put salt in the meat that way, it doesn't go bad. There's another sense in which Christian joy goes into the sorrow to keep it from going bad. That is, the circumstance does not get rid of the sorrow. As pardon me, the circumstance doesn't get rid of the joy. You still have your joy in Jesus. That's an unconditional thing. Circumstance can't change that. And so the joy that you hold on to

during the sorrow keeps the sorrow from making you bitter, keeps the sorrow from dragging you under, keeps the sorrow from putting you into despondency. So in some ways, here's how it works being a Christian. The sorrow pushes you more into your joy. The joy actually goes into your sorrow and keeps it from going bad. And therefore, Christianity is marked by this.

The joy and the sorrow overlap because your joy is not based on circumstances. It's something that helps you get through the circumstances. Out in the world, it's one or the other. And your sorrow eats up your joy and it's gone. So you get through the circumstances. Out in the world, it's one or the other. And your sorrow eats up your joy, and it's gone. So you see how different that is. It's really important to see. Not only is Christian joy inevitable,

but it's also not circumstantial. It's not based on circumstances that overlaps. But here's the third thing. This is kind of an implication, what I've already said. Christian joy is thoughtful. So some of you are trying to say, okay, well, how does this work? Well, let's, I'm getting more and more practical.

It's thoughtful. Why would I put it like that? Well, now I'm noticing with you how often Jesus uses the word C. In verse 16, he's talking about encountering the risks of recited Jesus. You know, they're going to see him raise. He says, in verse 16, he's talking about encountering the risks of wreck to Jesus. You know, they're going to see him raise. He says, in verse 16, you will see me. In verse 17, you will see me down in verse 19.

He says, you will see me. Then, of course, actually, in verse 22, he says, I will see you. And in every one of these cases, he's saying, something's going to happen, where you're going to see that I'm risen from the dead. And that's what's going to bring the joy're going to see that I'm risen from the dead. And that's what's going to bring the joy.

Okay, well, think about this. Well, actually, so I'm trying to talk to you about. When they saw Jesus risen to dead, they didn't just see He was risen to dead. They started to think. They started to say, there is a God. He is the Son of God. All that stuff He was talking about. Wait a minute.

The cross maybe it wasn't a defeat. It was a victory. He died on the cross for a sins. In other words, to see the risen Christ meant suddenly all the truths of the gospel become alive to you. And Jesus says therefore, that is what brings you joy because you think. How does I've read the books? How does the go into a Barnes and Old Will sometime get out of book on how do you deal with grief and sorrow and trouble? Now there's actually three ways that you can do it. The first way is you try to forget

the pain. Now the books don't tell you to do this, but this is what most people do. Forget the pain, what, drink, party, overwork, have an affair. Lots of people do it that way. In other words, how do you deal with the pain? You try to forget the pain by losing yourself

in some other kind of pleasure. The books don't tell you to do that, but that's what most people do. The second way that people deal with the pain is they try to avoid it, which means if you're put it this way, if your joy is based on a circumstance, then it looks like the circumstances about the change,

what some people do is anything to get the circumstance back. So if you're losing someone and that relationship's important to you, and it looks like that person is leaving you or something like that, you do anything. You manipulate, you blackmail, you melt down, you do anything you possibly can to keep that, which of course, by the way, makes everything worse, makes the relationship worse. But that's what we do, because if you're basing your joy on your circumstance, you've got to keep it. So you can either try to forget the pain, or you can try to avoid the pain by doing all sorts

of evasive action very often makes it worse. Or, and here's what most of the books try to tell you, is you essentially turn your mind away from the pain. You think other things. You think more positive thoughts or you don't let it get to you or you do something, you get a hobby or you sit and say that shouldn't have been so important to me. But here's the point. In every case what they're really saying is turn your brain off.

Don't think about it. One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus' encounters with various people during his life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged. We see him meeting people at the point

of their big unspoken questions. The gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in his book Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life reach more people

with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of encounters with Jesus today when you give at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Leo Tolstoy wrote a little booklet called Confessions, his Confessions, telling about how around the age of 50 he had an existential crisis. He didn't have much of a faith in anything.

He was part of the real, you know, actually the Russian intelligentsia. He was already a pretty well-known writer. And he asked his friends, what happens when you die? And most of his friends would say, well, when you die, you just don't exist anymore. And he was part of a group that said, well, there is no God. And when you die, you don't go to stop existing. And eventually, the sun will burn out, and everything will go away.

And Tolstoy started saying, wait a minute. If that's the case, why go on? Why should I keep writing books? Everything's meaningless. I mean, it means that in the end, it doesn't matter what I do. And the end, nobody's going to be around to know what happened. It doesn't matter whether I'm cruel or whether I'm good. In the end, nothing I do makes any difference.

Everything's meaningless. Why even go on? And what his friends said? Hey, go to the beach, go shopping. You know, you're a Russian artist. Okay, you're morbid, you know, Russian artists are like that. And so you're thinking too much, you're thinking too much. You know, just enjoy life.

And here's what he said. And he actually explained, this is why he started going back toward Christianity. He says, what kind of view of the world is only livable if you don't think about what you believe? What kind of view of the world is only livable if I just don't think too much about the implications of what I believe about the world?

In other words, the world's peace and joy comes from not thinking too much about what we actually believe about the world. But you see what the opposite is? And you see what Jesus is saying? When he says, the joy will come from seeing me? If you're a Christian in this room and you don't have a lot of joy, you know why? You're not thinking. You're not thinking out the implications of what you believe.

Christians believe that God made the world enjoy, just so in Proverbs chapter 8. It says when God created the world, He was delighting in us. He made the world enjoy. He made it to be a world enjoy, but we turned away from Him, and yet he didn't leave us just to rot and go away. He at infinite cost to himself, he came into this world and Jesus Christ died for us and we believe in him. He now, think of the value that you are, you have to him for him to do that and he's going to make the world perfect in the end, and we're gonna have that.

I mean, think about what the Bible actually says. Think about what you believe, and the more you think about, the more you're gonna say, wow, why am I so upset, why am I sweating the small stuff? The world's peace, let me say it in a way that's a little bit unfair, but it's preaching you know, preaching

is over simplification. The world's piece is a stupid piece. You only get piece and joy as long as you don't think too much about what you actually believe, but Christian piece and joy is intelligent. It comes from actually thinking more and more and more about what you really are and who you are in Christ and what God is doing and what God will do. You see that? Stupid pieces, ho ho ho, to the bottle I go. And intelligent pieces, do you believe that Jesus Christ came to earth and passed through the heavens and now sits at the right hand of God and he intercedes for you and he's going to come back

for you and he's going to make the world a perfect place. Do you believe that? How could that not make you feel good? And if you don't have the peace and joy, you're not thinking. So interestingly enough, Christianity is an intelligent peace. It's a, the joy and the peace is thoughtful. It's profoundly thoughtful. Look at him, he says, and look at what this means that I'm raised from the dead. And that will give you a joy that nothing can take away. Now, there's another interesting, actually. There's one more thing I got to mention, even though it's briefly,

brief before I get to our conclusion. You know, he also brings up prayer. And he says in verse 23, very truly I tell you, my father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Now it's kind of a drive by. It's interesting. Yeah, there's other places where he's talking more

about prayer in these passages. In fact, we've spent some time on them. If you've been coming, you'll know that we've actually spent some time on prayer. Because there's other places in these chapters 13 to 17 that we're looking at that Jesus talks more about prayer. But it's interesting that right here in all this talk about joy, he suddenly hits that.

And so even though it's a crazy bit of a problem for me as a teacher, because I can't go open that entire subject up of what it means to pray, and that would be a whole sermon in itself. Nevertheless, we have to keep something in mind. When he says, if part of your joy is knowing that anything you ask in my name, my father will hear you and give you what you need, is got to be part of your joy. And what does that mean? To ask the father for things, to pray in Jesus' name means

two things, at least. It means to pray with deep humility and with infinite confidence. Now the deep humility goes like this. Some of you may have heard this story before because I often use it. A true story was a pastor, got a letter from a guy who was very upset because God wasn't answering his prayers. And the letter said something like this. I mean, along these lines, the letter said, well, you know, I've been on elder for 10 years, I've been a sunny school teacher for 15 years. I've been a, you know, I've taught sunny school for 20 years, I've been a good person, I've been a, you know, I've taught Sunday School for 20 years, I've been a good person, I've been a good father,

and then he says, and yet God's not answering any of my prayers. I'm very upset. What have you got to say? And the main thing that the minister said is, well, to start with, you're not going in Jesus' name, you're going in your own name. You're not praying in Jesus' name, you're praying in your own name. You're saying, look at all the reasons why you should be hearing me. To pray in your own name. You're not praying in Jesus' name. You're praying in your own name. You're saying, look at all the reasons

why you should be hearing me. To pray in Jesus' name, at least means this. You don't owe me anything, Father. If I go on my own name, you don't owe me anything. That's why I'm coming in Jesus' name. I'm coming, I'm asking that you for Jesus' sake would hear me not for my sake. So the first thing is praying in Jesus' name means not getting angry because things are

God's not doing what you're asking Him to do because the anger almost always comes from the fact that, you know, I deserve this. So first of all, it gets rid of that, but, but. Once you start to understand, you're going in Jesus' name, and we've talked a little bit about this. When God looks at a Christian, there is a sense in which He doesn't see your flaws or your record. It is a certain sense He doesn't see you or He sees you in Jesus.

And He regards you as He regards His Son. And there's a place we'll get to in John 17 where Jesus says, and it's astounding. Father, once you love them, even as you love me, not half as well as you love me, even as you love me. Now, if you go in Jesus' name, you know therefore that God is going to hear whatever you ask for,

and he will be as attentive and as desirous to fulfill your desire as if it was Jesus himself asking. And that should give you incredible confidence, but it also would explain something. We're a child and he's a father. Jesus never talks about prayer without calling God father. Of course, he got a king and God's everything. There's a lot of things God has, but Jesus always emphasizes when you come in prayer to

God, always realize he's a lot of things, God, but Jesus always emphasizes when you come in prayer to God, always realizing His Father. And what if fathers do? Very often, a little child, especially, is going after a toy or a little child is going someplace to play. And you see, oh, that the child is going to fall or they're going to get pinched or something like that. So you pick the child up and for a moment the child goes, ah, and then you put the child down some other place and says, no, over here, honey, this is the place to go.

And suddenly the child says, oh, okay. And basically the desire is filled in a way that won't harm the child. You must have this confidence. Every time you pray, the God will give you whatever you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows. And if you believe that, realizing that God sees you in Christ and therefore if he's

delaying what you're asking for or if he's not giving you what you asked for, then it's never because he's not a 10 everyever, he doesn't love you. He loves you as if you were Jesus Christ. Well then why would he not be giving you exactly what you ask for? Only if you're that little child who doesn't know really that that really wouldn't be the best thing. God always gives you what you know, what you would have asked for. If you knew everything he knows and therefore, if you know that, that's part of the joy. Part of the joy of a Christian,

it comes purfully, is just having that infinite confidence. So you see, this is inevitable because it's not circumstantial, it's thoughtful, it's purful, but lasting, and just it is last. When I say it's also wonderful, I mean that. I mean, if you're saying, how do I enhance my prayer, my joy? You don't just sit there and ask God for joy. You should wonder what Jesus Christ has done. Because, let's go back to that metaphor. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her hour has come.

But when a baby is born, she forgets the language because of her joy that a child is born into the world. Now you were looking at that and say, wait a minute, it just says on my bulletin, it says, her time has come, yeah, but what's interesting about the way Jesus phrases this, is he says, the woman in labor and in pain is crying out because her time has come. But the actual word he uses, the Greek word there in the text is the word hour. It's kind of odd for someone to say about a woman who's in labor, her hour has come. That's not generally how you would speak about it. But do you remember this?

You might remember this from other times we've talked about it this year. In the book of John, whenever the word hour comes up, it refers to the hour of Jesus' death. So you know places where Jesus says, my hour is not yet come, means that's not time for me to die. Do you know the places where he says, now the hour is come, it means it's time for me to die. Why would he be using that term here?

Think about what the metaphor is. Back in those days, no human being was born unless a woman put her life on the line and experienced tremendous pain. Which is fascinating, is it not? It means that only through risking a woman's life and tremendous pain was anyone ever given new life, a new life come into the world. But guess what? Maybe a woman cries out in her hour, but Jesus Christ cried out in his hour.

My God, my God, have wasted that for sake of me. And Jesus knew that unless He also experienced anguish, but not the anguish of just risking His life, the anguish of giving His life, we could not be newborn. We couldn't be brought into the world, but He did it. See, He's identifying with this woman. And what Jesus is saying is, do you see that I gave up all the joy of heaven?

And I came to earth and experienced infinite anguish. But I was glad to do it. When I see you being born, I know it was worth it, just like the woman seeing a child born feels like it was all worth it. It says in Hebrews chapter 12, why did Jesus Christ go to the cross for the joy that was set before Him? For the joy that was set before Him? Wait a minute.

He had every joy in the world up in heaven. Why did He come to earth? He didn't have all the joy? No, there was one joy He didn't have before He came to earth. What was it? Us. He didn't have the joy of having us. And that must mean that Jesus Christ made us his joy and was willing to give up all joy and go into anguish so that we

could have ever since forgiven and we could have infinite joy. Now here's how you get more joy. Don't just say, oh Lord, give me joy. Wonder what Jesus has done. Be amazed. Amazing love. How can it be that now my God should die for me? And look at Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, if you made me your joy, that makes you my joy.

Did you really do that for me? See that will give you a joy that nothing can take away from you. Let's pray. Give us, Father, some better idea of how much joy is available to us. Lord, we just, we, we have encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ by faith, but because we're maybe not thinking, because we're not wondering, because we're not praying, for all sorts of reasons, we are not experiencing the joy that you have for us. Now Lord, you want our joy to be full. You want our joy to be complete. Help us just to simply see how your son Jesus Christ

gave up all joy so that we could have infinite joy. And that makes him our joy and that will inflict the joy in us. The wonder of it will break over us like a wave, the glory of it. Glory we want to rejoice with joy and speakable and full of glory. And what your son Jesus Christ did for us. And it's his name, we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching.

It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it, and it equips you to know more about God's word. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at GospelAndLife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel and Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotional and other resources. Again, it's all at GospelAndLife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2017. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017,

while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you