Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Ministers and the People

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

If you want to be an agent of reconciliation and change and healing in the lives of others, Paul says something that applies to us all. Paul says the essence of his ministry was this: “become like me, for I became like you.” There are two sides to that sentence. Only by the power of God can you do both. But if you can do both, you can change people’s lives. Here’s what you need: 1) you need ministers, 2) you need the kind of ministers who understand the gospel, and 3) you need ministers who labor until Christ is formed in you. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 1, 1998. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 4:12-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Is being a Christian just about moral transformation or a pathway to the good life? Tim Keller looks at the book of Galatians to demonstrate how the Christian life is so much more than that. It's about how Christ transforms us in a radical and life-changing way. Throughout this month, Tim Keller will be teaching from the book of Galatians and how the gospel transforms us. In your bulletin, you've got a place printed out where we have a text from the book of

Galatians on which the teaching is based tonight. Would you turn to it? We've been going through the book of Galatians, which is Paul's letter to a group of churches that he planted some years before, and we've been taking a…we've been going through it consecutively. Let me read you the passage we get to tonight. Hmm. Guess what? Confession of sins. You know, it's one thing to confess your sins, but it's

great to get a chance to confess somebody else's sin. And somebody printed the wrong passage. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read to you from… It's probably a punishment for confessing somebody else's sin. What I want to do is I want to read from Galatians chapter 4 verses 12 to 20. Just one little note, one little number of Galatians chapter 4, verses 12 to 20. Goes like this. This is Paul talking to the Galatians. I plead with you, brethren, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong.

As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. And even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? Those people who are zealous to win you over, but for no good.

What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. It is fine to be zealous provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I'm with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth till Christ be formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I am perplexed about you."

Okay, there it is. I'm sorry it's not printed in the bulletin, but it is printed in the Bible. You just have to trust me. Now, actually, I hated preparing this sermon. I'm sure I won't hate delivering it. I'm sure a lot of you will find it helpful or interesting or intriguing in various ways. But, you know, there's sermons and there's sermons. There's passages and there's passages. One of the reasons why it's good and bad to take a book of the Bible and go through it like this

consecutively and get to every verse is because you go to verses, you go to passages, and you have to preach on passages that ordinarily you'd never choose. When there's some passages that when you're done reading them or done listening to a sermon about them, you say, I have often walked down this street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before.

You know, you feel good, in other words. All at once am I several stories high. Or is there some passages that build you up and lift you up and send you out, this is a joke, and soar, but this isn't one of them. For a couple of reasons, I had a lot of trouble as I prepared it.

It's a very, very icky experience because this is about the relationship between people and pastors, between ministers and pastors. Now, there's two reasons why it's very icky. I'll just mention them real briefly. One is, you know, if a parent needs to go in and talk, you know, when I have needed to go in and talk to one of my sons about how they need to

listen to their parent, he needs to listen to his parents, I mean, it's pretty silly in a way. Why would he listen to a parent telling him about how he needs to listen to their parents. He needs to listen to his parents. I mean, it's pretty silly in a way. Why would he listen to a parent telling him about how he needs to listen to a parent? If one of his friends would come in and say, you know what, I used to not listen to my parents and boy, I got screwed up and I'd listen to my parents now, he'll be all ears, you know, wow, I wanna hear this. But you know, for a father to come in and say,

you need to listen to your father and your mother, give me a break. Now there's places in the Bible that say, there's a lot to come in and say, you need to listen to your father and your mother, give me a break. Now there's places in the Bible that say, there's a lot of places in the Bible that talk about the relationship between people and ministers. And unfortunately, they're in the Bible and the job of a minister is to teach what the Bible says and so I'm in this situation.

I'm in a situation which I've got to talk about something that I'm not, can I trust my motives? Can you trust my motives? And I don't even know if I can trust my own motives, but it's my job to tell you about it It's also I'll tell you another thing. It's icky When you look at what the Bible says about what ministers are supposed to be like It becomes very clear that where's an awful lot of bad ministers But as soon as you say that, you know, it means I'm talking about other ministers. I mean, maybe not by name or, and hopefully I'll stay very, very far afield of any individuals,

but how in the world can I talk about what the Bible says without essentially criticizing other ministers? So it's an extremely icky situation. Nevertheless, we need to plow through. And one of the ways we can probably… one of the ways in which we can mitigate some of the difficulty would be to remember this. Don't forget that if you care and if you're a mature enough Christian or if you're a mature enough individual, if you're an emotionally mature person, there are other folks that you know, that you care about, that you see that they're hurting, or they're messed up, or they're grieved, or they're in denial. And if you have any kind of emotional or spiritual maturity, there are people who you would like to be an agent

for change. You'd like to help them change their lives. You'd like to free them. Now if you don't have anybody around that you ache for, if you don't have anybody around like that, if you don't know anybody they just ache for and that you would just love to be an agent of change and freedom in their lives, you yourself probably need somebody to minister to you.

If you're not in a position, you yourself are probably all bound up. If you're not in a position, yourself are probably all bound up. If you're not in a position to ache like that, you yourself are just too self-absorbed and you're too much in denial and you're too emotionally immature yourself. If that's true, then in some ways, the things that Paul says here

do not just apply to professional clergy, but they also apply maybe at a different level, maybe in a different dimension, but they also apply to anybody who wants to be an agent of reconciliation and change and healing the lives of other people. Now, what Paul is doing here is simply this. There were a group of teachers that had come to these churches that Paul had founded. And those teachers were teaching a very different kind of message. And if you've been coming to the evening service, we've been going through that, and essentially

it was this. Paul taught them that you are not saved by what you do, but through faith in Jesus Christ. And these teachers came and said, no, no, no, you'll never please God, you'll never be saved, you'll never be accepted by God, unless you obey all the law fastidiously. Let me make sure I summarize this again, just for a quick recapitulation.

These teachers, these pastors, these ministers taught that Christianity worked this way. They said, believe on Jesus Christ, obey God's law, and then you'll be saved. And Paul had taught them, no, believe on Jesus Christ, you'll be saved, and then you'll obey God's law. In other words, they said belief and obedience go together and result in salvation. And Paul said, no, no, no, belief and salvation go together and result in obedience.

And Paul's point all through the book of Galatians is that if you don't, for example, there's anybody here right now that doesn't understand what the big deal is between those two things. you say, I don't understand the difference. Paul said that those two approaches make all the difference in the world. They're two different religions, they're two different philosophies, they're two different views of reality, and they result in two completely different personalities, two different psychologies, two different sociologies, two different everything.

Absolutely different. And Paul's fighting about this, and he's saying to the Galatians, don't do this. Now, he brings up something pretty interesting. The difference between his ministry when he went to them, and he was a shepherd, and he was a pastor, and he was a minister, and he was a teacher, and a preacher, and a counselor. And he's now contrasting his ministry among them with this group, these other ministers. And what it does is it shows us what the essence of real ministry is, what the relationship between ministers and people should be.

And that's what we're gonna take a look at. Let's take a look, okay? Number one, the first thing, actually there's two things, but I'm gonna put it to you in a nutshell. It's in this verse 12. In this verse, though I'm gonna show you the rest, in this verse you have got an absolutely remarkable little compendium of how to help somebody else

change their life. If you can do this with somebody else, you can see their life changed. You can see healing. You can see liberation. And this is what Paul says was his basic philosophy of ministry when he came to the Galatians. He says, I plead with you, brothers, listen, become like me for I became like you. That's very interesting. He says, become like me because I became like you. I'll tell you, there's two sides, there's two clauses, there's two sides to that sentence. And only by the

power of God can you do both. But if you can do both with the help of God, you can change people's lives. Now look and see what Paul said. First of all, he says, I became like you. Now let's not look at the first part, let's look at the second part first. I became like you. Now let's not look at the first part, let's look at the second part first. I became like you. This is remarkable. What he is saying is when he came to the Galatians, he didn't say become like me. First he said I became like you. This is a way of saying that he became flexible, he was adaptable. He talks about this another place in the Bible, and that is 1 Corinthians 9, 20 to 22, where he says this, to the Jews I became as a Jew. To the Greeks I became as a Greek. To those outside the home, to those outside I became as one outside.

To those inside I became as one inside. To the weak I became weak, I became all things to all that I might by all means win some. Boy, now some people really get scared about all that language, but listen, of course there's qualifications, we'll talk about the qualifications, but let's not talk about the qualifications before we feel the weight of this. When he says to the Greeks I became a Greek, to the Jews I became a Jew, now right off the bat you say, wait a minute, that sounds manipulative, but now look, when he says, to the Greeks I became a Greek, to the Jews I became a Jew, now right off the bat you say, wait a minute, that sounds manipulative.

But now look, when he says to the weak I became weak, now you begin to see, it was, this isn't, he's not a spin meister. When he says to the weak I became weak, Paul got into people's heads, he learned to get inside their questions, he learned to feel what their feelings were. And he adapted his ministry to their problems, to their needs, to their difficulties, to their issues. He became like one of them. Now, what's fascinating about this is that this statement comes in the middle of the book of Galatians. And if you read the whole book of Galatians, you will know that Paul was absolutely unyielding, inflexible, and hard-nosed about what?

About what he calls the gospel. He says the difference between saying, you believe in Jesus Christ, obey the law, and then you're saved, and you believe in Jesus Christ, and then you're saved, and then you obey the law. The difference between saying, I'm saved by my performance, or I'm saved by Jesus performance, he says, I will die for that, I will fight for that, I will take on the apostle Peter for that, which he did. Let God be true at one place he says in the book of... He says, like, God be true and every man a liar. He says, I don't care if all the rest of the apostles stand

against me. He says, I don't care if an angel... Remember what he says? He says, if an angel from light comes down in the middle of my sermon and, you know, his beams are coming out and you have to cover your eyes. And in his thunderous voice, the angel says, don't listen to this man. Don't believe the doctrine that we're saved by grace alone. We're not saved by grace and faith alone.

We're saved by our performance. What does he say? He says, help me. I'm going to rush that angel. I'm going to choke him. I'm going to kick him. I'm going to throw him out. I'm going to him, I'm gonna kick him, I'm gonna throw him out. I'm gonna say, I don't care.

Experience doesn't matter. This is worth fighting for, this is worth dying for. Now so he's absolutely inflexible about this and yet he says that when he came to the Galatians, I became like you. And here's what we learn. The mark that you do understand the gospel, the mark that you do believe you're saved

by grace is that you do not make a federal case out of details anymore. You major in the majors, you don't sweat the details. The mark that you, in your heart, I don't care what you say on the outside, but the mark that in your heart you do not know that God loves you because of Jesus You are trying very very desperately to overcome your insecurity. You're trying to patch up a self-esteem You're trying to make yourself feel worthy of God the way you can tell that is that you take the details of how a church does things and the details of how a culture works and the details,

and you insist on everything being done right, and you will make no changes. Why? It's your way of trying to convince yourself that you're right and other people are wrong, that you're good and other people are bad. And Paul says one of the marks, frankly, of a person whose life has been transformed by the gospel

is that you were absolutely unyielding about the centrality of the gospel, and you were incredibly yielding and flexible about everything else. You know, now, I'm trying to think of some illustrations as I watch the clock go on by, so I've got to keep on going here. You know, I think I may have used this once before, but it's an awfully interesting example of this. And that is there was a man who I heard lecture once who had gone to Africa because a missionary agency had asked him to come and consult with him.

And what this missionary agency had a problem with is a number of young men had become Christians on the coast. And this missionary agency had sat down and they had discipled them and helped them grow in their Christian faith. And they all said, we want to win others for Christ. And so what the agency did, the missionaries did, what they said was they trained them to be preachers and they sent them into the villages, very often back in the rural areas of Africa, to go into the villages and to gather everybody in the village together in the center of the square or the center of the village and begin to preach the gospel. And they got absolutely nowhere, absolutely nowhere at all. And this man had flown all the way over because the missionaries had asked him to come and consult.

So he sat down with these young men and they said, oh, it's terrible. Nobody believes, you know, they just won't listen. And we say, what's the problem? He says, well, here's the problem is that in our culture, whenever you gather the village together and you begin to preach, it is incredibly rude for younger people to speak first. Whenever you get the village together, it's absolutely necessary, no matter what the subject,

no matter what the topic, that the one or two or three oldest people in the village should get up and speak first. So whenever I get people together to tell them about the gospel, of course everybody says, well let so and so and so and so and so and so say what they think about Jesus. And so the consultant says, well what do you do? And I said, well we don't do that, we don't let them do it. That's why everybody's insulted, everybody's upset,

because some young man, and the consultant says, why not? Well the missionary said we must never let a non-Christian get up at a Christian service and say something. Why not? Well, that would compromise the gospel. I mean, that's not how you'd preach. Now listen, listen. There is nothing in the Bible that says anything about that.

Nothing at all. In fact, if you read the gospels, you'll see that Jesus Christ, very often when he preached, was dialoguing with people. He would ask a question. People would say something, then he'd respond. But what happens is, we get locked into our ways. We say, there's one way to do things, we've gotta do it.

It's not just the gospel, it's everything else. And what we do, when you add things to the gospel, you subtract from the gospel. When you say it's not enough just to believe in Jesus Christ, but you have to do all these other things right here, you're not really a Christian, you can't add without subtracting. You ruin it, you destroy it.

It can't be altered at all. And that's why Paul says, if you understand the gospel, you are a flexible person. But on the other hand, he says, because I became like you, I want you to become like me. He came and he adapted. He came and he learned. He came and he fit in.

Like Jesus Christ himself, he was incarnate. Jesus Christ did not come as just a supernatural being. He became flesh. He became one of us. He became somebody you could hug. And now what happens is Paul says, I did that and now you become like me. Now, this takes my breath away.

Because here what he's saying is not just that gospel ministry is flexible and adaptable, but it is normative. When he says become like me, he's saying two very breathtaking things. First of all, he is saying, I'm not gonna let you stay the way you are I'm going to make you change. I'm gonna press you to change. I'm gonna call you to change I'm going to urge you to change. I'm not gonna let you stay as you are

And worse than that even more breathtaking. He says I have come to embody the kind of life That I want you to live. How can we best understand the freedom we have in Christ? What is the relationship between the law of the Bible and the grace that Jesus offers? In the book Galatians for You, Tim Keller takes you through a rich and deep study of Paul's letter as he reflects on the amazing grace we have in Christ. Galatians is a powerful book that shows how people can think they know the gospel but are actually losing touch with it. In this study of the book of Galatians, Dr. Keller helps you understand how this short

book in the New Testament can transform your life. Galatians for you is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with more people. Request your copy today at www.gospelinlife.com. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now, the reason it takes my breath away is because there isn't anybody without, I've said this before, without the power of God, who can say both these things with integrity. This is not the natural way any of us are.

On the one hand, some of us are wounded healers. Some of us are affirming, non-confronting, open about our weaknesses, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, we just want to affirm and we want to love and we don't like to press, we don't like to push, and other people are demanding discipline, demanding of themselves, demanding of other people and really nobody puts all this together. See? Nobody in our natural temperament comes and says, become like me because I became like you. We've got a lot of people say, become like me. I'm waiting, become like me.

Or, I became like you. And now I'm just sort of struggling right alongside of you. Trudging along in a swamp, sinking along with you. No, this is not what Paul says. He says, become like me because I became like you. How can you possibly be a kind of person who's able to really say this? Say it well, live it out.

How can you become somebody who is so incredibly humble, respectful, somebody who doesn't sweat the details so that people feel like I can share, they could share anything with you that you will not come down their Throat you won't get all upset with them that you'll be understanding. How can you be that approachable? And yet on the other hand be so dog on strong so poised

so joyful The people that you may as Jack Nicholson said in this recent movie you make me want to be a better man. Have you seen the movie? Maybe this is as good as it gets. And at one point, you know, he's an obsessive compulsive and he just cannot possibly give a compliment. All he does is insult. And at one point Helen Hunt says, I want a compliment. You know, basically I think she's so mad at him, she gives him a, you know, she gives himimatum. She says, you got three minutes to give me a compliment or one minute or something like that. And he looks at him and he says, you know, finally he comes on and says, you make me want to be a better man.

She's blown away. There isn't any better thing than anybody could ever say to you. But how in the world can you become a person like this? I'll tell you, it's very simple. And basically it's this theme of the whole book of Galatians. Do you believe you're saved by grace? Do you believe that though you're a horrible sinner, when you have faith in Jesus Christ,

before and actually before, and apart from you cleaning up your life, you don't give God a righteousness, he gives you a righteousness. So when you believe in Christ, you're absolutely accepted in his sight and loved, even though you're a sinner. If you believe that, fine, put you aside for a second.

If you don't, then when you're living up to your standards, you'll be humble, you'll be bold, excuse me, and you'll be confident, but you won't be humble and loving and understanding. And when you're failing your standards, you will be what? You'll be so humble and understanding to other people, but you won't be confident and joyful. And therefore, you will either be in a position when you're living up to your standards to say, become like me, or when you're failing your standards, whatever they are, I'm talking about whatever they are, when you're failing your standards, you'll say, I've become like you, see? But only in the gospel do you feel like a sinner and like

a million bucks at the same time. Only in the gospel are you both bold and humble at the same time. Have you heard this before? Only the gospel can create that kind of duality in your nature. Supernaturally it's the only way possible. And when that happens and to the degree it happens, you can on the one hand enter into people's lives with that humility and with that respect, with not a shred of superiority, and at the same time have a joy and a freedom in your own life.

A freedom from self-righteousness, a freedom from needing to live up, a freedom, as we talked about last week, a freedom from creating idols, ways of things to worship, things to try to use in order to make yourself feel better about yourself. You're free from all that. You're humbled, but you're free.

And as a result, you can say, become like me because I became like you. And when you can say that, you will change people's lives. You will utterly change them. Now, so far, you noticed I have actually applied it as much as I possibly can to you. Now, I've got to pull back for a second. Paul says ministers need to do both. And I must tell you that it's very, very tough. Here's what you need.

And first of all, let me do some application here. Number one, this whole text, which unfortunately is not printed before you but is here this whole text first of all tells you that you need ministers You need teachers You need preachers and You need other Christians who aren't necessary clergy, but who are but have the gospel in the center of their lives There's a place in Hebrews chapter 13 where it says, obey your leaders and submit to them

for they're keeping watch over your soul. And it says, do not make them do their job with groaning for that would be of no benefit to you. That's a great verse. And I've often preached whole sermons on the verse, but here's what it means. You need to have somebody who's ahead of you in the Gospel to whom you're accountable.

How can you obey that verse? Unless you're in some kind of relationship, unless you've gone to somebody, either unless you've joined a church, or you've joined a church where you really look at the leaders, you look at the past, you look at the elders, you look at the deacons, the deaconesses, you look at the small group leader,

you look at the leaders and you say, these are people who are further than me in the gospel and I wanna be accountable for my life. You have to have somebody like that or you're disobeying the gospel, you're disobeying what the Bible says. Do you have them? You need them.

Okay? That's the first thing. Secondly, and here's where I get kind of icky. Here's where I get kind of icky. Have you not noticed that by and large, the conservative brand of Christianity is filled with ministers who say, become like me. But they don't become like you.

See, become like me, come to me. But they don't adapt, they're not? Become like me. Come to me. But they don't adapt. They're not that understanding. They're very rigid. They're very condemning. They're very condemning. And is it not true? I'm not talking just about clergy, but isn't it true that the leaders of conservative, but the leaders of the liberal mainline churches have become like you, but they don't say become like me. They say, well, who am I? I'm just a sinner. I'm falling down. I'm having all these problems in my life. It doesn't make any difference. Who's to say what's right? I'm just here with you I'm falling down. I'm having all these problems in my life. It doesn't make any difference. Who's to say what's right? I'm just here with you slogging away. Don't you see that you really can't have either kind?

Both of them are bad for your souls. You have to look for the kind that can say both of these things. Therefore, you have to look for the kind that understand the gospel. And thirdly, okay, so the first thing is you've got to have them. This is not an easy, you know, I've had a number of people come to me and say, I come to Redeemer in the evening service, but I go to another church in the morning and say, all right. Now, by the way, I happen to know that even though I haven't done a survey, something like 25% of you are in that boat.

And I always say, it's fine, absolutely fine. I got no problem. The body of Christ is bigger than any one church. We're not turf conscious and all that. But I always say, to whom in the end are you accountable? Some church, some place you've gotta say, you're my church, I'm yours. It's in other words, you have watch over my soul. There's got to be some place, and boy, I tell you something, modern people don't want this,

single people don't want this, New Yorkers don't want this, and the Bible says you need it. Secondly, you need this kind, as I said, become like me because I became like you. But then thirdly, now, and this is for especially ministers or people training for the professional ministry, but it's also true for all of you who wanna be agents of reconciliation in other people's lives. Look at what Paul says at the end. He says, it is fine to be zealous,

but I said, my dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I am perplexed about you. Oh dear, you're looking into an abyss. Let's be honest about this. This is the, look at, he says, my dear children, for whom I am again

in the pain of childbirth till Christ is formed in you. Wow, isn't that interesting language for a guy? Do you see what he's talking about? Listen, I kinda know. I'm very, very closely related to a woman that's had three children. Only, oh, related to her by marriage, but very close. And my wife, of course. And I remember not long after the first child

was born, and the first child can be pretty tough. I remember one time she just bowed her head. She says, you know, you know the place where Garrison Keeler talks about the Catholic Church in his little town in Lake Wobegon, and he calls it Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility? Do you know that? And I remember one time Kathy just bowed her head and she says, you know, I feel like my life's over. And she said, I talked to her and I said, why?

She says, first of all, it's the responsibility. She says, there's nobody to give this kid to There's nobody to say here. I want to go home now But more than that and you know It was more than that and of course to some degree at least at that stage more of the day-to-day Responsibilities of a child were falling on her than me But the thing that I found that was that she found first and I found second, but you do find, once you have children, there goes your heart.

Your heart doesn't belong to you anymore. It's an awful thing, but you can never be happy again unless your kids are happy. If your kids are unhappy, no matter how hard you try, and this is a frightening thing because your children unhappy, no matter how hard you try, and this is a frightening thing because your children actually, at least when they're little, they're sort of under your control. And I mean, you have certain amount of control,

but of course, as you get up, guess what? Your heart is no less bound up with them. Your heart's gone, in a sense. Your heart is there with them. If they're unhappy, you cannot possibly be happy. You cannot feel safe. You cannot be happy unless they are. You you cannot possibly be happy. You cannot feel safe. You cannot be happy unless they are. You've given your heart away.

Now there's a place in 1 Thessalonians that I pulled this out. The only farewell sermon I ever gave and the only farewell sermon I will ever give, I think, is a church in Virginia that I left in 1984, and I wrote a farewell sermon. And I wrote it and I preached it on First Thessalonians chapter two to chapter three, but I was especially concerned

about chapter three, verse two, where it says, now we live because you stand firm in the Lord. And you know what the opposite of that is? When I read that, it went right through me. And I had kids by then, I had three by then. And I suddenly realized what Paul was saying. He's writing the Thessalonians and he says, I got good news, I understand that you're standing

from the Lord and you're growing and you're free and you're in, and you know, there's joy in your life and you're dealing with your problems. He says, when I got the message, now I live because of I heard you stand fast in the Lord. But you know what that means? It means if you're a minister and you have, when you become a minister, it's like becoming a mother. Your heart is gone.

Your heart goes to the children. And if your children are unhappy, you die. And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing at all. And if you want to be an agent of change in people's lives, you will lose your heart. Paul says, I am in labor till Christ is formed in you. It's a wild mixed metaphor.

It's unbelievable. Usually when you're in labor because the child's been formed in you. And Paul sticks all these crazy spiritual metaphors together and says, what it means is God has deemed in his wisdom and in his grace to not work directly on people's souls but to work through other human beings, men and women, lay and clergy, preachers and small group leaders and just plain old-fashioned spiritual friends, who through the gospel can say, become like me because I've become like you. But if you get involved in that kind of relationship, say goodbye to your heart

because the people that you're working with, if they don't stand firm, you just die. But don't forget what C.S. Lewis says, if you don't want your heart broken, don't give it. Wrap it up in a casket of selfishness, and in that casket it will stay. It will not be broken, remember? He says it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only alternative to ministry is hell. And therefore, find yourself some people who can be over you in the Lord,

who got the gospel in their heart better than you have in your heart, who can say these things. And then, as you grow, let yourself be one of these people, recognizing that you need people in your life who love you so much that you can kill them with your bad spiritual response or make their hearts burst with joy by your growth. You want a person like that to oversee you and nobody less than that. But on the other hand, become a person like that. Why? Because Jesus is like that. You'll never really ultimately know Jesus unless you're willing to get involved in ministry. You know that great place, boy, you know,

that place in John chapter 17, where Jesus Christ says, Father, he's praying, and he says, Father, for their sakes, I sanctify myself. And that word, that phrase means, to sanctify, it means literally to set yourself apart. You know, we just saw, we had the Olympics, and if you wanna get to the Olympics, and if you wanna get a medal in in the Olympics you have to sanctify

yourself for it. What does that mean? It means you set yourself apart for it. It means you eat it, you breathe it, you dream it, you sleep it. Everything comes before that. I mean after that. That comes first. You sanctify yourself. The Bible says that Jesus Christ, the great God of heaven and earth, the Creator, the stars flit through his fingers like sand, he's that great, and yet he has bound his heart up. He's with you. He lives for you now. Sanctify means he lives for you. If you're a believer, he lives for you. He lives for your glory. He lives for your holiness. He lives for your holiness.

He lives for your happiness. You are what he is doing everything for. I could show you this from the scripture, but I don't have the time right now. And when you know that he has literally died so that you could stand firm in the Lord, you won't mind the little teeny deaths that happen when you follow in his footsteps and you set yourself apart

for people and you give yourself to people and you see people change through you and you also see people hurt you and ring your heart because it's the only way you're ever going to get to know him is if you become like him and the only way you ever get the power for doing it is if you know him but he'll give you more than enough and for for doing it is if you know him, but he'll give you more than enough. And for all the pain of travel, there is the absolute joy of parenthood, and there's nothing like it in the world.

You need ministers like this, you need to be a minister like this. You have a minister like this. Praise his name, let's pray. We thank you, Father, that we know that Jesus Christ is that minister who we all have. Redeemer has that minister and it's not me. All Christians have that minister. Now we pray, Father, that you would show us how we can be ministers and we also pray that we pray for across this country that you would raise up both at the lay level and at the

clerical level, people who truly can be by the gospel say, become like me for I've become like you. We ask that you would make us a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And Father, we thank you for the men and women in our lives. Right now, we would all like to take a moment to thank you for the people without whom we would not know you, we would not be maybe here today. Our lives might be in ruins without them. We thank you for them. today. Our lives might be in ruins without them. We thank you for them. Make us like your son who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life, a ransom for many. In his name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you'd like more people to hear, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more. Today's sermon was recorded in 1998. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.