Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Jesus’ Model of Spirituality

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

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

Welcome to Gospel in Life. What does it really mean to live in a way that reflects God's kingdom? For many of us, the kingdom can feel like an abstract idea. But in today's teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, Tim Keller shows how Christ offers us practical guidance for living out a compelling vision of a new kind of community shaped by grace. In your bulletin we come to the part of the Sermon on the Mount, very famous part. The part that you, if you come to Redeemer, you actually recite part of this every week. Matthew chapter 5, pardon me, Matthew chapter 6 verses 5-13. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues

and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth

as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." This is God's word. Now we're going through the Sermon on the Mount, and we come to the subject of prayer. And this actually, believe it or not, is a very hot topic in our society today. In the culture in general, the last few years there has been an explosion of interest in prayer and spirituality, in meditation and spiritual experience. This year, on the first Monday of the month, we get our small group leaders together, our ministry leadership together, and I went through and talked about meditation and prayer, and

one thing that was very striking to me is just how much hunger there was there, and amongst our own leaders for this. But the importance actually for Jesus of prayer is to some degree revealed in this little unobtrusive word that you'd probably miss at the very, very top of the page, the very beginning of the passage in verse 5, little word and. And. Prayer isn't a standalone for Jesus. It's connected. See, there are places where we've already seen in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus almost seems to talk like a sort of social justice radical activist. You know, there's a place in the Lucan version of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, and I quote,

sell your possessions and give them to the poor, unquote. And right before this passage in chapter 6, Matthew 6, 1 to 4, Jesus is talking about our engagement with the poor and our giving to the poor and our intense engagement with the world and the needs of the world. And then he gets to verse 5 and he says, and when you pray, and when you pray. Now look, when you're talking and you're talking about something and that means it's connected, he doesn't say, well let's change the subject, let's get on to prayer.

Oh no. In Jesus' mind, in Jesus' understanding, it is the people, I'll say this slowly, it is the people who are characterized by the most radical interiority that have the most courageous, visionary engagement with the world. It is the people who are most characterized by radical interiority and incredible inner life of prayer that their life is characterized by buoyant promiscuous generosity and engagement

with the needs of the world. Jesus does not put these things against each other. As a matter of fact, he says they really can't happen without each other. If you're really praying it drives you out. And if you're really effective out there it's come from within. Radical interiority, now I'm using that term because there's a book, and by the way, if you're starting to read on prayer, this should not be one of your first 15 books. It's a little hard to read in many ways. Make it your 16th, alright? But there's a very famous book by St. Teresa of Avila called The Interior Castle.

And it's a beautiful image, it's a fascinating image. She says when you in your soul actually find the king, when you actually get into the ultimate spiritual reality, when you actually get in connection with the cosmic throne room, your soul, your insides become a castle of light and of love and of radiance. There's a radical radiance, an interior radiance that happens and that, Jesus says, is the thing you've got to have if you're going to have this incredible life in the world. So, you see, Jesus sees the importance of prayer and, however, Jesus gives us a model of prayer and spirituality, and before he gives us the model which is in verses, you know, the famous Lord's Prayer in verse 9 and following, he

tells us two other models that we should avoid. This is very important, very important to see. You notice Jesus is very, he's willing to be negative in order to be positive. He says, I'm going to give you a model of spirituality and if you understand it and if you receive it and if you use it, then it's going to have this tremendous effect on your life. You know, I've just heard tons of people say to me over the years, I've tried prayer but it didn't work. Now by the way, I have something at home that looks like a coffee maker but it's a tea maker and I like it very much. But if you ever stay in my house and you try to make coffee in it, you're going to say,

this coffee maker doesn't work. No, it won't, because it's not built to brew coffee, it's built to brew tea. And when people say, I've tried prayer and it didn't work, what Jesus is saying is, well, you used prayer not the way I designed it, but you used a false model of spirituality. And what he does here in this paragraph in verses 5 to 8, he gives us two false models of spirituality. And then he turns around verses 9 to the end and he gives his own model. Now let's take a look at the false models and then his own models and then we'll conclude with some practical stuff because people have been pressing me.

So when you get to the Sermon on the Mount Mount the whole idea of the Sermon on the Mount is practical. Tell me how to do this. Don't just make me say, don't just let me walk away feeling like I ought to pray more. How? So let's look at the false models, the true model and a couple of practical ideas here on how to go about it. The two models, now look, if you look carefully you'll see that Jesus says in verse 5, when you pray do not be like, and down in verse 7 he says, and when you pray do not be like. He has two groups of people and he says, when you pray don't use these models or you'll be brewing coffee in a tea maker and it won't work. First model is religious prayer.

When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Now when you first read this, the first impression is, these are fanatics. They like to stand and they like to pray in the synagogue. Well people did stand and pray in the synagogue. This is formal worship. But it also says on the street corners. And right away that evokes a picture of some guy walking along and, you know, right, you know, out here, 69th and Park, and suddenly praying out loud and everybody

saying, well, I mean, this is New York and so. That's not what it's trying to evoke. The street corners meant a town square, a place where the streets came together. And the connotation is this, these are people who not only go to formal worship services, but they lead in prayer in community, civil, religious events. And this is what Jesus is getting at with this kind of prayer. Is there anything wrong with that? Is there anything wrong with coming and praying in church or synagogue? Is there anything wrong with leading in prayer at large public events? And the answer is no, but he says, this kind of person has no interior personal prayer life. You see, he contrasts it with the people who say, but when you pray, go in your room. These are people who have a public prayer life, but

not a private prayer life, and the reason is, the reason they see for prayer is it makes them fit in with the social order, to be seen by men. This is like, religious prayer is where prayer and worship functions as helping you fit into your family, fit into your town, fit into your social order, fit into your people, fit into your culture, and it puts you in the right place. It's like when the politician ends his speech by saying, and may God bless us all. He has no prayer life, and all the people love it, and they tell the focus group people, oh, I really like that, but they don't have a prayer life either, but everybody feels better. Everyone feels better because it in a sense sort of baptizes the social order or it's like this the average person in the world

If you say why are you? Muslim why are you Catholic? Why are you Presbyterian? Why are you Baptist and the average person says if they're honest because this is that's who? That's where I'm from You know, I'm I'm Italian know, I'm Italian so I'm Catholic, I'm Arabic so I'm Muslim, I'm from Tennessee so I'm Baptist. Well, yeah. In other words, this is my people, this is who I am. And what this means is not, look, we're not talking about people who come and they're

all dead inside. People whose basically prayer and worship is religious, it's cultural. If you were raised in a kind of church, you were raised in a kind of service, and this is who your people are, see, and this is who your town is, and this is who your tribe is, and this is who your family is, you're used to it. And so you do get a kind of inner peace when you go. And you do feel what? You feel good or there's certainly some sense of stability and there's some sense of inner peace when you go.

But here's what Jesus is saying. You are not relating to God, you're relating to an environment, a social environment. You feel you're connected to your roots that way. That's why you feel good. Or you feel maybe even some nostalgia or familiarity or just a sense of being part of my tradition. But it's a connection to the tradition or to your family or to your roots or to your social order, but it's not a connection to God. And he says the sign of that is that when you go into your private closet to pray, you've got nothing to say.

There's no passion to know Him. There's no passion to meet with Him. There's no passion to want to be with Him. You don't sense that at all. You pray maybe when there's trouble, but when there's no trouble, when there's nothing forcing you, when there's no social reason, when there's no family reason, when there's no circumstantial reason, you don't have any internal pressure to actually know Him or meet Him or see Him. And Jesus says this is the sign that you're basically, this is just religious prayer, you're not really connected to Him, you're connected to an environment. The environment makes you feel kind of good, but you're not actually

connected to Him at all. And the sign is you don't have a continual, growing, personal, secret, private prayer life. You don't know what to say. You're bored when you get just by yourself. Now let me take the gloves off for a second before we move on here. This is Jesus' words. How do you know if you're a hypocrite? How do you know if you're a hypocrite? How do you know if you're a hypocrite? Now, you know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is somebody who's one thing on the outside, another thing on the inside.

How do you know you're a hypocrite? Well, we don't go to the place he goes. We go to sex. We say, he says he's so moral, but he's having an affair on the side. But Jesus doesn't use sex as your test for hypocrisy. I'm not saying that's right, but that's not the test. That's not the most telling test. Well, someone says, let's take a look at money. He says, she says, they're very devoted to God, but you know, they're selfish.

They spend money on themselves. They don't give to the poor. They don't give to the church. And of course, that's bad too. However, Jesus says, that's not the acid test. What's the acid test that you're a hypocrite? You don't have a prayer life. that you're a hypocrite. You don't have a prayer life. There's a sermon I read years ago when I was in seminary by Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards wrote this sermon years ago

and the name of it was, Hypocrites Deficient in the Duty of Prayer. And boy, I had nightmares for about a month after I read that sermon, because this is simply what he says. He says there's only one thing that you don't do for show in the Christian life. There's only one thing. It's secret prayer. He says everything else is for show. Everything else somebody sees. Secret prayer is the only thing you do just for God, just for Him. Not for anybody else, not even for yourself, just for Him. It's the only thing in your life you don't do, in Christian life, you don't do for show and therefore if you do everything else but secret prayer, all of your Christian life is just for show. Admit it. If you don't have a secret prayer life, he says, that's a sign of hypocrisy.

That's a sign that you've been invited. The reason you pray is because of your environment, not because of God. You're trying to... because of... okay, you got that enough, that's enough. You feel bad enough. Let's move on. Jesus actually though, very interestingly, and it's a little weird, except it's actually easier to see today, he turns to another group. And down in verse 7 he says, and when you pray, don't keep on babbling like the pagans. Now this is a little hard to translate.

First of all, the word babble is a hotbox legomenon in all of Greek literature. This word is used not only here in the whole Bible, but it's only used here in all Greek literature we know. There's no other place. And it kind of means a torrent of words, sort of an intense torrent of words. Not just many words, but kind of frantic words. And the word pagans is Jesus' word ethne, which is often also translated nations, but in the New Testament it usually means the unreligious.

It means the licentious. It means the immoral. It means the non-religious. It means the licentious. It means the immoral. It means the non-religious. Now why is Jesus talking about non-religious prayer? Well, one thing that would be interesting to go to in a tangent, but I won't. One thing Jesus is saying here is there really isn't such a thing as a prayerless heart. What he's really saying is something, now you know, snotty Christians over the years have put it this way, there are no atheists and foxholes. That's a pretty snotty way to

put it. But what he's really, what Jesus is saying is that prayer is the involuntary reflex of the heart. No matter what you say you believe, no matter what you think about the universe, the fact is when you feel your humanity, when you feel your vulnerability, you can't stop yourself from praying. No matter what you say, you believe. There are times in which you can't not pray, which means that your heart knows in spite of what your intellect is telling you, there's a God and you need him. The torrent comes out no matter who you are, but that's not all. Jesus says they

think they will be heard for their torrent. Robert Wuthnow, I quoted him in the fall, it's a really worthwhile book to read. Robert Wuthnow wrote a book recently called After Heaven. He's probably the leading sociologist of religion. He teaches at Princeton University, a very prominent man, and the book After Heaven was a very, very thoroughgoing sociological reflection and study of spirituality today. He says, and this is fascinating in light of this passage, he says that the older approach to spirituality in this country was what he called, he called it an inhabiting, an inhabiting model, inhabitation. He says the inhabiting model was

you went to sacred places out of family tradition. Sounds like what we just talked about, the religious approach. He says in the past people went to sacred places, churches, synagogues, cathedrals out of the tradition of your people and of your family. But he says the newer version that's sprung up in the last two years are by people who say, I hate religious institutions. I'm spiritual, I'm not religious.

Everybody has to decide what is true or right for him or herself. Everyone has to decide who God is for him or herself. Everybody has to decide that for yourself. I'm putting my own religion together, but basically they say, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual, and they're really into prayer. They don't go to church, they don't want to be part of something like that, but they're into meditation, they're into all sorts of spiritual exercises, they're into all sorts of spiritual emphasis on touching the spiritual. But Robert Wethnow, rightly so, and it's very fair of him, and

he's a very careful man, he's a leading scholar, he says, you know, in the end it's not much different than religious prayer, the older version. He calls this the seeking model of spirituality and the older one the inhabiting model. One says, I'm here, this is my place, these are my people, that's why I pray the way I do. And the seeking model is a kind of journey who says, well, we never really arrive, we never really have any answers, we're just always seeking. He says, one of the big problems is, whereas the former was culture-driven, this one is technique-driven. New spirituality is very technique-driven. You have visualization techniques, you have relaxation techniques, extremely technique driven, but in the end,

it's not really trying to reach God either. It's trying to use the divine to get the kind of inner peace and spirituality you feel like you need to get to your goals. You see, you know, the old religious approach basically baptized the social order. That's the reason why the older religious traditions to some degree have been rejected. Because very often the oppression and the injustice and the bigotry of the old social orders were baptized by the religious tradition. But you know what's interesting is the newer spirituality in many ways also is essentially just a way of sort of spiritually baptizing my goals in life. For example, if you use the more modern spiritual technique, let's say you're a baseball player

and you're trying to kind of use spiritual techniques to be a better baseball player, you just visualize yourself hitting that home run over and over and over again. You know, what you're saying is, this is the world I want, and I'm going to use the divine to get there. And Robert Wathenau is smart enough to say that's just as superficial as the old approach. Because instead of submitting to something, instead of really being changed, you're basically using the divine to get what you want. And Jesus says they think they'll be heard because of their torrent. They think because I can do something, I can change things,

I can create the world the way I want it, I can visualize the world the way I want it, I can put myself in a position where I'm reaching my goals. Jesus says, no, no, no, no. No. He says both of these are wrong and they're bad models. My model is this. And in the Lord's Prayer, and by the way, this summer our preaching team is going to go through the Lord's Prayer because spirituality is so hot and we're going to have a number of pastors go through it. But here's what I would say is a kind of summary which by no means a hopeful steal the thunder either from my own sermons on the Lord's Prayer this summer or anybody else's. But he basically says this, my model of spirituality is this, the purpose of prayer, what is prayer really about? Is it to get

things? Is it to get inner peace? What is prayer about? He says it's to experience the friendship of God and experience the Lordship of God out of a realization of our sonship with God. It's an experience of friendship and an experience of Lordship out of a realization of our sonship. Are you looking for ways to grow in your faith this summer? Or are you hoping to help new believers or kids grasp the heart of the Christian faith? For many of us, the summer months can provide more time to deepen our faith and our understanding of what it means to follow Christ. A great resource to start using this summer is the New City Catechism Devotional, God's

Truth for our Hearts and Minds. This devotional brings the historic catechisms of the Christian Church to life, offering a question to consider for each week of the year. In the introduction, Tim Keller lays out the case for catechesis, the rich and communal practice of learning and memorizing questions and answers that frame the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. The included commentaries are by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, and Kevin

DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther. This month, in addition to the New City Catechism Devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism Devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism for Kids, as our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copies today at Gospelinlife.com slash give. That's Gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Let me show you how that goes. All right. Here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Let me show you how that goes. All right. An experience of friendship and of lordship out of an experience of our sonship and a realization of it. See, the problem with the older religious tradition was no friendship. It's all externals. That's the reason why there's no private life. That's the reason why there's no private prayer closet. It was all externals. But the trouble with the newer spirituality is not that there's no friendship, but

there's no lordship. There's nobody to obey. I basically decide what's right and wrong for me. No friendship, no lordship, because there's no sonship. Now, first of all, I'm going to do this kind of quickly. Number one, friendship. The purpose of prayer. Look at the first part of the Lord's Prayer. What's that all about? This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, and the earth as it is in heaven.

The first half has got nothing to do with my needs. The first half's got nothing to do with my needs. The first half's got nothing to do with daily bread, nothing to do with my guilt, nothing to do with my anger toward people, nothing to do with the strength I need to face the challenges, nothing at all. What's going on there? Well, what am I spending the first half of the prayer doing? I'm enjoying, I'm noticing, I'm rejoicing, I'm amazed by Him. Before you get, now here's the point, before you ask for anything else, the primary goal of prayer or the first thing you should ask for is Him. See, when people say prayer didn't work, I always say, what do you mean prayer didn't

work? And they always tell me something they asked for that they didn't get. Always. But see, the Lord's Prayer, basically, you know, what are you trying to do there? You're trying to make coffee in a tea maker. Jesus says, the way prayer is supposed to be built is, before you ask for anything else first, ask for me. There's someone who says, if there's anybody's anybody here says prayer didn't work for me. I want to ask you a question

Did you persistently? day in and day out Time in and time out over and over and over and over again. Did you say I want you I? Want you in my life? I want your reality. I want an experience of you. Did you do that first? Was that the primary goal? No because experience of you. Did you do that first? Was that the primary goal? No, because I tell you this if you did that Prayer would not have disappointed you Prayer is primarily for that

You know the place in Luke Where the sermon on the pardon me where the Lord's Prayer is introduced. It's in Luke chapter 11, where Jesus tells them how to pray and uses the Lord's Prayer. Right before Luke 11, there's a story of Martha and Mary. And Martha's running all around, that's the sister who has Jesus at the house, and she's running all around with housework, and she's very upset and distracted and busy and so on, and Jesus gently rebukes her, lovingly rebukes her and says, Martha,

Martha, Mary has found the one thing necessary. Now this is pretty interesting. Here's Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ telling us, so we better open this up and look at it. There's only one thing you really need, everything else is negotiable. Everything else is negotiable. Nothing else do you need. If you have this, everything else is secondary. What is it? And when he says the one thing necessary, then he says Mary is sitting at my feet and listening to my word. And commentators know.

And they'll say, Jesus Christ who was so completely steeped in the Psalms so completely saturated in the Psalms could not Have not sorry with about a double negative He could not have not had in his mind the famous place in the psalm psalm 27 verse 4 where the psalmist David says One thing will I seek after one thing only do I need? says, one thing will I seek after, one thing only do I need to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. And Jesus says, and David says, now David is a man who had a lot of problems, he was always running for his life, he was always in crisis, he was a king, he was a general, he was in all this stuff, and he says there's only one thing I really need. David does not ask for safety first. He does not ask for protection first. He does not ask

for success first with all the stuff that was on him. He says, if my soul has a sense and a sense of the inner sweetness and glory, if my soul sees the beauty, if I don't just know about God but I actually taste and see his beauty, he says, well, nothing else will bother me, nothing else will overwhelm me, nothing else will shock me, nothing else will attract me, and I'll be able to live a life at large. And Jesus is saying that about Mary, and Jesus is saying that to you, and then comes the Lord's prayer, because that's the point of it. That's the context. Friendship.

Now, let's move on. Friendship is the first thing. You're not allowed, because it's not built that way, you're not allowed to go asking for anything else until you've asked for his friendship, until you've sought like crazy for that, until you've asked for an friendship, until you've sought like crazy for that, until you've asked for an experience of his holiness and love, not just knowing about it, but actually a sense on your heart. That's the first point.

Then secondly, Jesus says, now by the way, that's very different than the religious approach, but secondly, unlike the new spirituality, Jesus says the second thing you get to is his lordship. The second purpose of prayer, besides the intimacy of our Father, is, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Now here's the second thing, and this is pretty scary. Before you get to asking for the things you want, Jesus says you've got to go through this. And that is, what is the real source of your problems? So we run down to daily bread, we run down to all the other stuff because this is what we think. We say, I'm scared, I'm worried, I'm angry, and I know how the world needs to go.

And therefore there's a torrent of words that very often comes out of our hearts toward God when we pray. Oh Lord, you just got to do this. You've got to do this. She's got to live. She's got to see. This has to happen. I've got to get in.

This money has to be here. I just don't see any other way. And there's a torrent of words. It's babbling, by the way. That's a fair translation. We're babbling. We're just coming on. And you know what? If we just go right to daily bread, when we're done praying, we're not going to feel less worried. We're going to feel worse. We just rehearse all the things that scare us to death.

How wonderful. And when we get down and when we take a look at everybody who's doing bad things to us, when we're done, we're going to be more bitter. We're going to be more angry. We're going to be more guilty. Oh Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did this. Tart of words, babbling and babbling and babbling. But Jesus says, here's the first, but you went too fast. The more primary than asking for things is to take yourself out of the place of God. Until you pray, the natural stance of your heart is to walk around, if you listen carefully, you'll hear it.

Your heart's always saying, my kingdom come, my will be done. My kingdom come, my will be done. And actually, it's the source of your real trouble. It didn't come home to me till recently when I was studying Genesis 50. And in Genesis 50, Joseph, you know, remember he was betrayed by his brothers, if you know the story, he was sold into slavery, his brothers basically tried to kill him, tried to ruin his life. At the very end they find that he's risen up to power, he has the power to pay them back, and when their father dies, they send a message and they said, please don't hurt us. And Joseph

gets them together and what does he say? I've forgiven you. It was a lot of work, but I've forgiven you. No, what does he say? He says, am I in the place of God? The source of all of Joseph's forgiveness, the source of his peace, the source of his lack of fear. When you're scared, you know why you're scared, you know why you're worried, you know why you're eating up with anxiety. Some of you are right now. You know why? Because you're sure you know how things should go. How do you know that? How do you know how things should go? You know! You're in the place of God. You assume it.

Some of you are resentful, really resentful. Because there are certain people who have done certain things to you and they haven't gotten their comeuppance and all that. You know why you're so resentful? It's not the circumstances, it's not them. It's because you think you know what they deserve. You think you know. And Joseph says, I got myself out of the place of God. That's the main reason I'm unhappy. That's the main reason I'm scared. That's the main reason I'd be angry.

I got it out. I'm out. How do I know? You see, the second model, part of the model, is you have to experience His Lordship. You have to be willing to say, and this only happens in prayer, it will happen through the Holy Spirit if you're willing to go after it. If you see that this is really, before you get to anything else, you've got to do this, you've got to say, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, show me the most important thing for me to know, that you're God and I'm not. And I don't believe it. This is the reason

why I can't overcome my guilt, because I feel like I've got to live up. I've got to be my own savior. This is the reason I can't overcome my anger. Because I know exactly what those people deserve. This is the reason I can't overcome my worry and my anxiety. Because I know how the world has got to go. I know, I know. Joseph says, get out. How awful. Martin Luther used to say to... Some of you heard me say this, because Martin Luther, his friend Philip Melanchthon, was a horrible...

He probably died of an ulcer, like some of you. His name was Philip Melanchthon. Every so often, Martin Luther would come up and he would pat him on the back and he would say, Philip, let Philip cease to rule the world. In other words, Philip's problem, Martin says, is basically theological. It's not. Our psychological problems are basically theological problems. And the only way to heal your heart theologically is through prayer. It's through taking a look at his heavenliness, looking at his kingship,

looking at his hallowedness, his holiness. Why is all that stuff in the beginning? You have to heal your heart. you have to heal your perspective. You have to be willing to say, you're Lord. And when that happens, then you begin that lie, that big life. Nothing overwhelms you. Nothing overcomes you, see. Now thirdly, how can this happen? Jesus says one reason, religious people

don't have friendship in their prayer life. Now what's interesting is, the more non-religious people, they do have a private prayer life. They meditate and they're seeking and so forth, but they don't have any lordship. That means they say, well everybody has to do what, you have to decide what is right and wrong for you. You know what this means? You are not after a God who can contradict you. You're not after a God who can say, I'm God and you're not. When you say, I don't believe in tradition, I don't believe in authority of any sort, I have to decide what's right and wrong for me,

what you've done is you have completely condemned yourself to being in the place of God for the rest of your life. Good luck. You're of God for the rest of your life. Good luck. You're under qualified for the job. You know what it's like to be in a job that you're under qualified for? Nothing. You might have been in Oak Jow under qualified for but nothing like this. And Jesus says now, friendship is the first lordship. You have to experience this friendship. You have, experience lordship before you ask for anything.

But you say, well, now, how can that be? How can I know him so intimately? And how can I trust him so implicitly? Do you hear that? So the religious person says, how can I know him that intimately? You know, he tells people to say, our father. If you heard me say, maybe you didn't know me at all, you didn't know anything about me, but if you heard me or overheard me say, my Cathy, you would immediately figure out

whoever Cathy is must be wife or a daughter. Because you don't use words like that unless it's very intimate. And if you overheard me, it would only be overheard me because I would never say such a thing out loud. You don't say such a thing out loud either. Why? You feel naked to talk like that. You don't use that kind of language in public for the people that matter to you like that. Why not? This is a language of intimacy. And Jesus says you start out by saying, God, you're my God. Father, you're my Father. Well, the religious person says,

How can I know that? How can I know that? I'm trying very hard to be good and I'm hoping that God will favor me. How can I know that? How can I treat him that intimately? And then on the other hand, the second person, the non-religious spiritual person says, Well you say, just trust him. Just say, Well, you're God and hey, I'm just like, wow. Well, now wait a minute here. How can you trust him like that? The answer is the doctrine of the gospel or the doctrine of adoption. The first word is, not my king, not my lord, he's all that, my father, our father. The gospel is the way you become a Christian is not by trying real

hard through techniques, trying real hard through good works. The doctrine of adoption is I become a Christian when I say, Father, accept me because of what Jesus has done. And at that moment the Bible says we get the sonship. Now occasionally I've had women who say, why do you keep using the term sonship? It's a little insensitive to the rest of us. And actually, not really. Let me tell you why I hold on to it. Because in the New Testament, in those days, sonship was a legal status. When you adopted somebody, that person not only became intimate with you, but they became

your heir, like that. But only men were adopted. Only men got the sonship. And yet, Paul and John and all the New Testament writers have the audacity to say that when you receive Christ as your Savior, God gives you, whoever you are, rich or poor, male or female, you get the sonship. You get the full rights. And when you know that, then you'll be able to pray. Well somebody says, I don't know. I don't know if that's enough. How is it possible? How is it possible that I could have this kind of confidence in God, this kind of

intimacy with God? Well here's the answer. When Jesus Christ came to Simon Peter, before he was about to fall, he looked at Simon and he said, Simon, Simon, Satan wanted to have you, he wanted to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you. So when you turn back, when you repent, when you recover, strengthen the brothers. What Jesus said, I have prayed for you, so maybe you'll turn back. Oh no, I have prayed for you, so maybe you'll turn back. Oh no, I've prayed for you.

Hebrews 7 says, Jesus Christ, when you become a Christian, Jesus Christ ever lives to intercede for us. What does the word intercede mean? It just means prayer. Hebrews 7 says, Jesus Christ has reoriented his life so there's one thing he lives for. He lives for. We know what he's doing. He's always praying for us. He's standing before the Father, we're told, as it were. And he's constantly saying, I want this in their life and I want that in their life. I want good things in their life.

And basically, when we pray, God says, I have all these incredible things I'm ready to throw into your life, not because of your merits, but because of His prayer life. Your prayer life, puny and teeny as it is, is going to, all you've got to do is just start to pray, and you're finally going to be in a position where you'll be ready to receive the incredible things that are coming into your life because of His prayer life, His prayer life for you. If you know His prayer life for you, if you see His prayer life for you, if you see that prayer life for you, if you know that you have that kind of assurance, then you'll be able to experience His friendship and experience His Lordship.

Somebody says, oh yeah, how? Can I just give you one little exercise? Fifteen minutes a day, not counting Bible study. Don't you dare study the Bible and look up everything and sit down and all that, and then you pray for two minutes. That's not prayer. After you're done studying your Bible passage, take 15 minutes, and the first thing you need to do is listen before you speak. That's the whole point of the Lord's Prayer. Before you ask for anything, the first half is all what? Noticing who he is, listening to who he is, hearing who he is. Then you respond. That's the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is, look at this, and look at this, and look at this, and listen to this, and listen to this.

Now, here's some things I want to say to you. The whole point of the Lord's Prayer is, the prayer is answering God. It's responding to God's Word. It's not just talking. If you got an appointment with this incredibly powerful person, you wouldn't sit down and say, I have a lot of things to tell you, and just talk and talk and talk. And at the end I say, I hope you understood. I hope you heard that. My hour's up. And that's how it went. No, no, no. Here's what you do. Study your Bible passage and then the 15 minutes begins. First thing you do for five, six, seven minutes at the most, ask the text two questions.

What Lord are you telling me about you? And what Lord are you telling me about me? Then read the text through slowly. You've already studied it, right? Read the text through slowly asking those two questions and listen for his voice. And then after you've written a couple of the answers down, you see, then pray those things. Adore Him and thank Him for what it's telling you about Him. Confess and make petition for the things that it's telling you about you. When that 15 minutes are up, then you

can go to do other things. You can do your prayer list. You know, bless mommy and daddy and do all that. And before that 15 minutes, you can do your Bible study. But you know what? An awful lot of you are doing your Bible study and doing your prayer list and you're not really praying. You're not experiencing his friendship and you're not experiencing his lordship out of a realization of your sonship. Make sure you open up for fifteen minutes, listen to his word in that text and then respond to it. Do it fifteen minutes a day. Do it thirty days in a row.

Go to Psalms or go to John if you really say, well where do I even turn? And then come back and tell me what happens. Prayer works if you go after his friendship and his lordship first. He has never turned down those prayers. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would help us become people of prayer. There are some of us here who aren't even sure what we believe.

Well, the only way you're going to find you is to pray. There are many of us here who really believe we're sure, but it's all head knowledge. Everybody in this room needs to go back and pray. Everybody in this room needs to find that radical interiority. There's no difference between whether we're Christians or not Christians or we don't know what the heck we are. We pray, Father, for prayer. Your Son, the greatest one who ever walked the face of the earth, prayed all the time. Now we know why. He was praying for us.

Knowing He was praying for us, and only if we know He was praying for us, will we be able to live a life of prayer ourselves. So help us to that end. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life Podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the Gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelonlife.com slash partner.

Today's sermon was recorded in 1999. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you