Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Love and the Fruit of the Spirit

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Almost all of us have parts of our lives we really want to see changed, but change is really hard. And it’s very possible to mistake a morally restrained heart for a supernaturally changed heart.  If you squeeze a rubber ball and then take your hand away, it snaps right back to where it was. You restrained the rubber ball temporarily, but you didn’t really change it. Almost all of us have that rubber ball experience. We try to change parts of our lives, and we put a lot of willpower behind it. Then as soon as circumstances change, it snaps right back. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that a supernaturally changed heart 1) is not the same as a busy life in service of others, 2) is not the same as a morally committed life, but 3) is meeting love as a power and as a person.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 11, 2010. Series: The Real Signs of the Spirit. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Many of us try to change through sheer willpower, conquering bad habits or forcing better behavior, only to find ourselves snapping back to old patterns. In today's message, Tim Keller is exploring the fruit of the spirit, showing how real transformation isn't about moral restraint, but a heart that through Christ is changed from the inside out. The scripture reading for today is taken from the book of 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 through 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love. I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when perfection comes the imperfect disappears

when I was a child I talked like a child I thought like a child I reasoned like a child when I became a man I put childish ways behind me now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror then we shall see face to face now I know in part then I shall know fully

even as I am fully known and now these three remain faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love this is the word of the Lord

now when you hear that read you immediately look for the bridesmaids the flower girl and you know even though it's a great passage for a wedding especially the center of that text when it describes love you couldn't have a better guide for how to conduct a marriage than that so it's fine to do that but i want you to know right now paul did not write this for weddings um he he wrote this about change, about change. See, almost all of us, almost all of us, have parts of our lives we really want to see changed. But change is really hard.

If you take a Coke can and you crush it with your hand so that now it's taking up less space, it's smaller, and you take your hand away, it stays where you put but if you take a rubber ball and squeeze it with your hand so it takes up less space then you take your hand away it snaps right back to where it was why because the rubber ball you restrained it temporarily but you didn't really change it you changed the coke hand see but you didn't really change the rubber ball you just restrained it and it snaps back now almost all of us have that experience, the rubber ball experience, I mean. We go out to try to change parts of our lives and we put a lot of willpower behind it and we put a lot of pressure on certain parts of our

lives. We say, I think I got it. And then as soon as you let up, or circumstances change, it snaps right back. And this is also true of Christians. It's also true of Christians. That's the message of this passage. In Galatians chapter 5, Paul lists nine what he calls fruit of the spirit, nine character traits, love, joy, peace, patience, and so on, that are the results of a supernaturally changed heart, a permanently changed heart. They are traits that can't be produced by willpower. And yet here in this passage, I think Paul is showing us that it is very possible to mistake

a morally restrained heart for a supernaturally changed heart. to mistake it and we're so shocked when we find it hasn't really we haven't really changed we've been restraining ourselves through our willpower we haven't actually changed from the inside and what we're going to do over the next few weeks is that we're going to do a series on the fruit of the spirit we're going to take each of those nine fruit that paul talks about in glatians five and each week we're going to look at one of them as a sign of and as a mark of a supernaturally changed heart to help us understand what it means to develop such a heart. But here today, this passage in some ways is very simple. In other ways, it's very profound. And it's always, when you actually delve in to see

what it actually saying, since we are used to reading it at weddings, it's always kind of a shock. But what this is about is to tell us what a supernaturally changed heart is not and what it is and how it comes. A supernaturally changed heart is, first of all, not the same as a busy life. in service of others. And secondly, it's not the same as a morally committed life. That's in verses 1, 2, and 3. But then lastly, a supernaturally changed life is to meet love as a power and as a person. So that's what we're going to learn. Supernaturally changed hard. It's not the same as a busy act of life. It's not the same as a morally committed life. It's meeting love as a power and a person. First. Verse 1 and 2.

Um, Paul makes a list of things that really are abilities, their talents, their gifts. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, or if I have the gift of prophecy, if I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that moves mountains. Now let's go down that list. The first part, he's talking about the things that he's been discussing in chapter 12, 1st Corinthians. He's talking about what we might call the moral the miraculous gifts or the extraordinary gifts. He's talking about prophecy and miracles and getting revelations from God. And we're not going to go into that, even though some of you might like me to go into it.

We're not going to go into it. We're just going to see what he says about that. Those are very, very spectacular gifts. And then he talks about fathoming all mysteries. In Pauline language, that means understanding God's revelation, and particularly the Bible. So here he's talking about a person who's gifted at understanding and teaching the Bible. then thirdly he says faith to move mountains now that's not the normal kind of faith that we need in order to connect to god faith to move mountains is visionary faith it's inspiring faith

it's faith inspires people paul's talking about talents and gifts artistic gifts academic gifts leadership gifts and the corinth church was filled with them because corinth was like new york York in some ways. It was an urban center. It was a financial center. It was a, it was a place in which people came to excel. And as a result, it was filled with smart, talented people. And therefore, the church was filled with smart talented people. It was a growing church. And it was constantly, it was serving people, and it was helping people. And everybody was very, very active. And Paul, shockingly says, it's possible to even have miraculous gifts like prophecy. It's possible to have tremendous leadership gifts, tremendous preaching and teaching gifts without love.

It's possible to be doing all of this not out of love. Now you say, you know, what do you mean? What does that mean? Well, here's what it means. If you, if we can skip for a second ahead to verses four to seven, which is the guts of this, of the text, where it says love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast. You know what he's actually giving us here. If you've read the entire rest of First Corinthians, you know that verses 4 to 7 is a list of everything that Corinthian Christians

are not. They are impatient. They are unkind. They are rude. They're boastful. They're bragging. They're condescending. Right? They are gifted. They are talented. They are successful. They're starting new ministries and starting new

nonprofits. Do they have them back then? And they're doing things for people, but their character. their attitudes, you know, they're cranky, they're crabby, they're impatient, they're condescending, they're always having fights, they're always hurting each other's feelings, always getting their nose has been out of shape. And Paul says, that is not insignificant. Boy, do we need to hear this now. See, like Corinth, we live in an urban culture, and let's face it, in New York, what really counts? What really counts? Are you smart? Are you the best?

Can you produce? Okay, so you've got character flaws. Well, you're a colorful character. You know, you know. I was just reading, you know, a book by a wife of a former, of a man who's now gone, Norman Mailer. He'd read that. She's his last wife and she's written a biography.

And of course, Norman Mailer was a brilliant author and everybody came out to listen to him and he ran for mayor. Okay, so he stabbed one of his wives with a knife. You know, he's a colorful character. see what really matters is he has the gifts he has the talent you see and and paul totally reverses that and he says no it's the other way around he says if you're brilliant if you're gifted if you're talented even in god's service even doing all this for god but in your heart you're filled with envy and pride and anger and insecurity you are nothing that is of no value to god at all

and actually one of the things it's most frightening here i mean this is a very direct statement he's trying to say it's possible to have little grace in the heart that means to have given god very little of your heart and yet be very successful in ministry that's what this is saying and it's even saying it's possible to be successful in ministry and not having and not actually given your given god your heart at all it says uh at one point he says you're nothing it's possible to be nothing. You know in Matthew 721? There's a place where Jesus says on the last day, some people are going to come to me and they're going to say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Huh? These people prophesied, just like 1st Corinthians. Prophesy. And have in my name, did we not cast

out devils and demons? And didn't we in thy name do many wonderful works? And I will say to them, I never knew you. Now you say, how could a person be a great preacher, cast out demons, and actually have God's spirit help people through that person and not even be actually have ever given God his heart at all? Is that possible? Sure it is. Hey, look, you know, people need help, right?

If you're going out there and in your heart, you're still filled with pride, you're still filled with anger, you're still filled with all sorts of inner self-centeredness and self-absorption and you're out there trying to help people you know maybe god will god's spirit will use you why not temporarily why not people need help but don't you dare paul says look at that and say god's with me and that's scary so the first thing we see here is a supernaturally changed heart though it will always lead to a life of service We got to remember that you must not identify with a life of service because you can have a life of service without having a supernaturally changed heart. That's point one. Point two. Let's move on to verse three. The second thing we learn here is you mustn't mistake a supernaturally changed heart for a morally committed heart, life. So it says in verse three, now he's moving on, and if I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Now, this is very interesting. These are not.

talents, are they? He's moved away from the talent and gift list, and now he's moved into what the Greek philosophers would call a virtue list, a list of virtues. And Aristotle has them, they all had them, you know, prudence and self-control and justice and wisdom and all, you know. And so, and Paul gives us a kind of mini list, and it's quite powerful, a list of virtues. Now we're talking about moral fortitude, moral, commitment. On the one hand, he says, if I give all I possess to the poor. Now, today, we would call that a liberal virtue, social justice. But by the way, look at it. It's not just, you know, a charitable handout. If I give all my possessions to the poor, here's someone so committed to

the poor that he or she is living in voluntary poverty. Just living in voluntary poverty. It gives away most or all of what you have and just lives with the poor. Isn't that something? Wow, that's virtue. And on the other hand, and if I surrender my body to the flames, and what's that? See, that's dying for your faith. Going to the lions, going to the steak. And that's what most people would call a conservative virtue in a way, because to stand up for your faith and to die for your faith. That's the sort of thing that people consider kind of traditional religion.

So here you have the list. Paul says, name me all the virtues, name me all the moral commitments there are. It's possible to do that without any love in your heart at all. Not out of love and therefore before God it's spiritually valueless. It's nothing. Now, so Paul actually says here's a virtuous and that's as valueless. Again, let's get this straight. A supernaturally changed heart will lead

to a morally committed life but you can easily have a morally committed life without a supernaturally changed heart at all and it's very very easy to mistake one for the other now how does that work why well go up to verse one we most everybody goes right on by this if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love

I am only a resounding gung or a clanging symbol now what's so bad about have you ever thought about that what's so bad about a symbol I love the symbols don't you love the symbols? What's so bad about that? What's, what's hollow about that? Or what's, what is that? That verse makes no sense unless, as the commentator say, it's referring to the worship of the various temples of those Greco-Roman cities, like in Corinth. They had all the various gods, they had all the various pagan temples. And the way worship was done was a great processional

in which there were gongs and there were symbols and you were wearing your finery. It was a parade. And the purpose of it was to honor the God, to get the God's attention, to get the God's approval. Look how much we venerate you. You know, look at it. And Paul says,

do you know it's possible to do not only Christian ministry but also to practice Christian ethics and virtue? It's possible to obey the Ten Commandments and go to church and get active in church and try to help people. and do it to get God's approval. You're not doing it for God's sake. You're not doing it just because you love him for who he is and himself.

You're trying to get things from God. And you're not helping the people for their sake. You're helping them for your sake. You're trying to get the applause. You're trying to get the approval. And Paul is saying here, the telltale sign that though you're morally committed in the broad sense, and you are active in helping other people

and giving your money away to charity and the poor and all that in the broad sense yet the telltale sign that you're doing it for you you're not doing it out of love you're not doing it for love of God or love for other people it's all about you is the irascibleness it's the it's the it's the stepping on each other's toes you know churches

these are churches occurrence is the typical church people who are broadly moral and very active in serving God and other people and half the people aren't speaking to each other because they're so mad at the others. The Psalms can profoundly shape the way you approach God. Even Jesus relied on the Psalms

to face every situation, including death. In Tim and Kathy Keller's 365-day devotional, The Songs of Jesus, you'll find daily readings through the Psalms with fresh biblical insight. If you don't have a regular devotional practice, this book is a wonderful way to start. And if you already spend time in study and prayer,

then reading and praying through the Psalms can help you bring your deepest emotions and questions before God and discover a new level of intimacy with him. We'll send you Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Jesus with more people. Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give.

That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. There's the gossip, there's the backbiting, there's the envy, there's the rudeness, there's the boasting, there's the bragging, there's the critical spirits, there's the impatience, the embraciveness, the self-pidding, the self-absorption, the vanity, the anxiety, the insecurity, it's all there, all underneath all of the morality, yeah, they're moral, and underneath all the service, yeah, they're very active, and Paul says that's absolutely dead. And you say, well, how can that be?

Well, let's let me give you what I still think is the best way to understand this. Let's think about, let's do a case study. Let's think about how we actually teach children to be honest and not to lie. How do we do that? We appeal to two things. Fear and pride. We ratchet up fear and pride. Now, there's two ways.

first of all. Now we're talking about anywhere, public schools, you know, church, synagogue, wherever. How do we teach children not to lie? We're home, family. One is we appeal to fear. We say, you'll get caught. The teacher will catch you. The police will catch you. God will catch you. And worse, I will catch you. Worse than all of that, I will catch you. So what are we doing? We're gradually, it will not pay. it will not pay. You're going to get it. You know, your sins will find you out. Your lies will find you out. So the first thing is you get them scared. You say, you better not lie. If you lie and you get, it won't pay for you. That's fear. The other thing to do is pride. You can appeal to pride and you can say to the child, you know why you should tell the truth because you don't want to be like those awful liars. Liars. You know, and sometimes if we catch the child, instead of just saying what you did was wrong, we shame them. Liar. Because, and what are we trying to do? We're trying to get the child to be truthful by getting the child to disdain a certain kind of person. Liars. Liars. You liar. So now let's think about

what is fear and pride. What is fear and pride? It's self-centeredness. It's enhancing a person's self-centeredness. It's teaching them to look down at certain people. It's teaching them to think about, and you know, here's what's going on. What is wrong with the world? It's self-centeredness. It's the impulse of every human heart that goes, me, me, me first. What about me?

That's self-centeredness. And instead of putting a stake, a wooden stake in the heart of self-centeredness, the way in which we teach people to be good is we enhance the self-centeredness and then jury-rig it. So that it's keeping the kid or the person from doing wrong.

know, from doing wrong. But let's think for a second, everybody. Why do we lie? There's lying everywhere. There's deception everywhere. There's corruption everywhere. There's embezzling everywhere. It's awful. Okay, why do we lie? Fear and pride are the reasons we lie. We lie when we're afraid of losing face or when we're afraid of losing power, afraid of losing something. And we lie out of pride of feeling like I can pull the wool over these people's eyes. I can, you know, these people don't deserve. I can do this. I can do that. And so when you enhance in a person's life, fear and pride in order to get them to lie, you're actually setting them up eventually to tell the truth. You're setting them up eventually to lie because something will change. Something will come along.

You'll take your hand off of the rubber ball and it'll snap back. And you'll say, and after you've embezzled or after you've lashed out or after you've cheated on your spouse and you can say, what did I do that for? I wasn't raised that way. Yes, you were. We're all raised that way. That's how we get people to be good. We squeeze that little rubber ball through fear and pride, but it doesn't really change it. It doesn't change the self-centeredness. It enhances it. It doesn't destroy it. It doesn't put a stake through its heart. And that's the reason why you see, in the short run, people being moral, but having all of these underlying telltale signs, the unkindness, the impatience, the grumpiness, the crabbiness, you know, they're always being hurt,

always having your feeling hurt, your ego is always being hurt. See, that's the telltale sign underneath the broad morality, but at some point, even the broad morality breaks through for many of us, many of us. So many people, the good people. I mean, you know, why, for example, Why is it that so many high-level public officials do the most ridiculous things, fall into scandal and blow their entire careers up? It happens all the time. Every year, a couple, right? You know why? Because they're being morally committed, huh?

And they're being serving people, and they're giving their lives in public service. And very often, because they're in public service, they're making far less money than the other people they went to graduate school with who are making ten times more. And deep inside, what happens? Self pity. Self pity. They start to say, oh, nobody knows what I go through. And next thing you know, there's the opportunity for, you know, cutting a corner here, taking some money here, having an affair over here. And the person says, I deserve it. Where does that come from? It comes from the self-pity. It comes from the self-absorption. It comes from what's going on inside the heart, in spite of the fact that the person out there is being, you know, so good. Paul says it's absolutely deadly. Don't you see? Don't you recognize it in yourself? You are settling for something that's going to blow up on you. And therefore we see that even the list, the virtue list, you know, the, you know, this is Aristotle's generosity, integrity, justice, prudent, self-control. They can all be done out of an inner joy or out of an inner emptiness.

Why do you think Jesus Christ said, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you can have nothing of me. He's trying to say, look at the scribes and Pharisees. Look at their kind of morality. There's a kind of morality that's morally restrained. You've got to go way deeper than that. So how do we? Point three. Get to verses 4 to 7, and we see really what a supernaturally changed heart is,

you have to meet love as both a power and a person. Now, here's what I mean by that. It's actually stronger in the Greek than it comes across in English. But what's so striking about verses 4 to 7 is that Paul does not say, I want you to be patient. I want you to be kind. I don't want you to envy. I don't want you to boast.

I want you not to be proud. It doesn't say that. Instead, he personifies love. It's all transitive verbs. Love becomes an individual, a person. And it says love, by the way, literally, verse four says, love suffers long. That's patience. Love suffers long and bears it.

Love is so kind. Love does not envy. And love is a person doing this. Instead of saying, here's what I want you to be, he gives us a picture of an active force, a personal force who's living in a particular way. Why is he doing that? Well, here. First of all, to get across the idea that real love only develops when you meet love.

Real love doesn't happen through trying, but through receiving and through meeting. What do I mean by that? Well, you know, if he actually said, now here's what I want you to do, do these ten things, it would be a set of rules that we are supposed to pick up and try to do. But honestly, Paul is saying, no, love is not. first something you do. It's a power that picks you up and changes you. And I want you to know that this actually sounds very mystical and supernatural, but it's really not, if you think about it. Here's what we know about children. Social scientists have studied this. It's tragic. It always

kind of moves you. But we know that if a child, if an infant is born and is put into an environment where the child's never picked up, never held, never loved, never cooed to, nobody ever does baby talk and smile at its face. Now, in words, if you don't love a child at all, as the child grows up, does the child just, what happens? Does the child say, well, I'm going to have to really, no, the child's incapable of love, basically. The child's broken. The child can't give or receive it. We know that. In fact, in many cases, they die before they even grow. Why? Because. essentially we learn to love by being loved.

We don't just try. We learn to love by being loved. The more we're loved, the more we can reflect love. It's just, we know that. The more we're just embraced by love and surrounded by love and just flooded with love as we are born and grow up, the more we can do it. Because before love is something you try to do,

love is something you meet, something you receive. love is not something that you try to do but it's a power that picks you up and changes you and that's really important and therefore if we're really going to develop this love it means we have to have a very powerful experience of love beyond see if we know that there's something wrong with us we may have had the parental love so that we grow up as normally adjust well adjusted human beings in general we know there's still stuff wrong with us which means we need another kind of love infinitely higher than anything even the best parents could have given. And we need to meet that love and we need to receive that love

if we're going to move ourselves, if we're going to be moved to another plane. So first of all, he personifies love to get across the idea that love is a power. But secondly, he personifies love to get us to think of a person. Look, this isn't just poetry. this isn't just poetry when he says love suffers long love is kind when he personifies love this isn't just poetry i'll tell you why if verses four to seven is nothing but a kind of abstract model a picture of a perfectly loving person if that's all it is if paul is saying i want you to think about a person who is perfectly patient incredibly kind never boast never self-seeking

Never keeps a record of wrongs. If he's just laying in front of me an example of a perfectly loving person, I don't want it. And neither do you. Because all you're going to do, are you going to say, wow, I can be like that? No, you're going to say, wow, I could never be like that. If you know any, if you have any experience with your own heart, if verses 4 to 7 is just giving us a general picture of a perfectly loving person, it'll crush you. I don't want it. Let's tear it out. But I don't think Paul is.

For Paul to personify love and then to imagine that he's not got a particular person in mind is to not know Paul at all. And here's what I want you to consider. When Paul wrote, love suffers long, how could he not have been thinking about the one who said

my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There's infinite suffering. And when it says, out of love, and when it says, love does not keep a record of wrongs, how could he not be thinking about the one who said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. They were killing him. They were killing him. And he says, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. and when he says love always protects always hopes how could he not be thinking about the one who said today you'll be with me in paradise

even though he's being killed even though he was dying he was able to turn to someone to turn to the thief on the cross and say I want you with me in paradise and when you see hope when you see love person Persevers. Love perseveres. One of the most amazing things that Jesus said on the cross was, it is finished, which, as some of you know, is a Greek word that means it's completed, it's been

accomplished. It's what amazes me. Just as he's dying, he says, it is finished. You know what he means? Here's a man stripped naked. Here's a man abandoned. Here's a man penniless. Here's a man tortured. Here's a man powerless. Here's a man, everyone is left. And just before he dies, he says, I did it. I did it. What did he do? He accomplished our salvation because he died on the cross in our place and took our punishment, which is a way of saying he refused to die until he had done what he'd come to do. Love perseveres. And by the way, love never fails. And how the world could anyone write that, especially St. Paul, without thinking, as much as I love my wife's, as much as I love my children, someday I'll be dead.

Who could you really say, who could you speak about and say, his love never fails? There is only one. Jesus Christ said, I will never, never, never, never forsake you. That's in Hebrews. And so we have that great hymn that goes, that soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake. I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake. And how do you know that? We know that because Jesus Christ took hell for us.

Even hell couldn't push him away from doing what he wanted to do for us. He did it. Now, here's the point. You can look at verses four to seven. as an abstract person who perfectly loves you and that will never change your heart. It'll only crush you under guilt.

It'll just say, I'm going to have to really try hard if I'm going to be like this. Or you could see Jesus Christ being all of that things and the ultimate example of it on the cross, doing all that for you. Not doing all that just as an example, but doing all that for you in your place as your savior.

and when you see that, what will that do? Do you believe that? Do you embrace that? Do you take it in and think about that and sort of taste it on the palate of your heart day in and day out? Here's what it's going to do. It's going to get rid of your fear. Every day, a little bit more. It's going to get rid of your fear. You're not going to be afraid of losing face.

Who cares? You're not going to be afraid of losing anything. So on the one hand, it's going to value you out of your fear because he loves you like that. But on the other hand, it's going to humble you out of your pride. because you know he loves you in spite of everything. And so if you look at love as an abstraction and just try to live up to it, it'll either fill you with pride because you think you're doing it, or it'll fill you with fear because you know you're not.

Or you could look at Jesus Christ doing it for you, and it destroys your fear, it destroys your pride, it begins to regenerate your heart from the inside. So if you see Jesus Christ, doing the love of verses 4 to 7 for you, eventually that love will be reproduced in you. Let's go get a supernaturally changed heart. Let's begin right away. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that this text is not at all like what we think it is.

Of course, it is. what it appears to be on the surface. It is a wonderful inventory of what it means to have a loving relationship. It's a wonderful blueprint for how to run a marriage or any relationship or how to run all of our relationships. And yet it goes much deeper than that. It shows us that we have to meet your son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. The ultimate example of suffering long, the ultimate example of not keeping a record of wrongs. The ultimate example of love that perseveres and never, never fails. It can't fail. There's no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we pray, Lord, that we would be so melted by, affected by the love done for us that

that reproduces that same love in us as our fear and pride melt away over time. Lord, we would be willing to confess that to a great degree we have not been very affected by the gospel and the cross and what Jesus has done. And we want to begin to develop supernaturally changed hearts now. Meet us now. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelonlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 2010.

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 know, I don't know.