Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Our Power: Spirit-Filled Living

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Living the Christian life is not a matter of willpower and self-effort. Because of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we have the potential for radical and organic growth and change.  2 Peter talks about moving from selfishness to unselfishness, from enslavement to freedom, from foolishness to wisdom. It’s talking about inward character change, about spiritual growth.  According to this passage, spiritual growth is 1) possible, 2) gradual, 3) essential, 4) practical, and 5) ultimately wonderful.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 8, 2014. Series: Following Jesus. Scripture: 2 Peter 1:3-11. 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. This month on our podcast, we're doing something a little different. We've curated a collection of sermons and talks from across the 28 years that Tim Keller preached at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The messages featured this month explore a range of topics that show us how the gospel affects every aspect of our lives, including vocation, friendship, and the mission of the church. Because as we believe, the gospel can change everything.

The scripture reading is from 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 11. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control,

perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection, and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your

calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is God's word. Now every branch of the Christian church teaches that when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit. And on Pentecost Sunday, many churches in the world observe today as Pentecost Sunday, it's very appropriate for us to be looking at a passage like this, even though the Holy Spirit's not actually mentioned in the passage. What is mentioned, and in fact, the teaching that is given here, it's one of the most important passages in the Bible, to teach us about spiritual growth. Ultimately, being a Christian, living a Christian life is not actually a

matter of willpower and self-effort. Because of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we have the potential for radical and organic growth, character change. You can see it as we will be looking here in a minute where it says you should be adding to your faith, goodness to that knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance. It's talking about moving from selfishness to unselfishness, from enslavement to freedom and self-control, from foolishness to unselfishness, from enslavement to freedom and self-control,

from foolishness to wisdom, it's talking about change, character change, inward character change, spiritual growth. What do we learn from this passage about that? Quite a lot. In fact, I'd like to point out five things, not just three things. So, a lot of you might want to cancel

those appointments you have after the service. According to this passage, spiritual growth is possible, gradual, essential, practical, and ultimately wonderful. Let's go through those. First of all, spiritual growth is possible. Let's take a look at the very top, verses three and four. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly living so that through him you may participate in the divine nature. These are stupendous statements and just to throw into relief how stupendous they are, let me just say I would be rich if I had a dollar for every time I heard somebody over my lifetime say,

people don't really change. I'd be rich. But I would be 10 times richer if I also got a dollar for every time that I quietly assumed that toward other people and even toward myself. This is, I think, that people really don't change is, I think, a working assumption for most of us. And verses three and four radically contradict that.

Verse four says, and he's speaking to us, he's speaking to Christians who have believed the promises of the gospel. It says, through them we participate in the divine nature. Now that is an astounding way to put it. We get the Holy Spirit, yes, but this is helpful to put it like this. We participate in the divine nature. When you are conceived, the DNA of your ancestors is implanted into you. The genetic material of your ancestors is implanted into you. And when you're born and you live your life, that DNA essentially plays itself out in the rest of your life, making you what you are. And when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit is not just a kind of nebulous force that is with you. It is, he is the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the Trinity. That's God come into you. And therefore, when you believe the very DNA of God is implanted in you and the rest of your life is an outworking of that DNA which makes you what the person that you will become. So it's just and that's the reason because we're being told the very DNA of God has been implanted in you when you believe in Jesus Christ. That's the reason why Peter

can say this most convicting and yet most hopeful verse, verse 3. It's maybe the most convicting, it's the most devastating and the most hopeful verse at the same time, maybe in the New Testament. Look what it says. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life. Okay, you want to hear the devastating aspect of that? There is no excuses. This is, Peter is saying, don't tell me you don't have what you need to live as you should you absolutely do what more would you want?

You got the divine nature No, you don't need some kind of esoteric knowledge that you don't have yet or some mystical experience You've got it if you are a Christian who believes has received the Holy Spirit. You're a participator in the divine nature has received the Holy Spirit. You're a participator in the divine nature. So the devastating part, the incredibly convicting part, is Peter saying you already have everything you need to live exactly as you know you should. Don't tell me you don't have that.

But the hopeful part, of course, is what? The hopeful aspect? It doesn't, there is no wound so deep in your life that it can't be healed. There is no brokenness so great that you can't be repaired. There's no habit so binding that you can't be freed from it. So first of all, spiritual growth is possible. Secondly, however, and this takes a little bit of pressure off of all, spiritual growth is possible. Secondly, however, and this takes a little bit of pressure off of us, spiritual growth is gradual.

See, when you hear you've got everything you need to live as you ought, that doesn't mean right away. And we all go, whew, tell me more about this point. This is a good point, I want to know more about this. Okay, let me bring that out. Look, verse eight. After verse five and six and seven, which we'll look at here in a second,

it says, it's not enough just to believe, you have to add to your faith goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and brotherly love, as we're going to see in a second, and love. And then it says, if you possess these qualities, they will keep you from being ineffective. That's not what it says.

It says, if you possess these qualities, they will keep you from being ineffective? That's not what it says. It says, if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, it doesn't say that all these things come at once. You grow. They're gradual. See, the Bible uses lots and lots of metaphors for what it means to live the Christian life, and they are all gradual. Now, the reason we have to press this is because the United States is the most impatient culture in the world today and in the history of mankind. Honestly, here's why. I mean, I've been getting around a little bit more this year

and you realize that even Europe, I mean, even by European standards, Americans are so impatient. We want it done and we want it done now. This is the reason why there's wonderful cell phone companies that have gone into the toilet, lost billions of dollars because some other cell phone came along and did what the first cell phone did three seconds faster. And we said, who needs that? I want the other cell phone three seconds. I need that three seconds. And so, we are really impatient. So when Americans, or people that have been acclimated

to American culture, hear the promise, Christianity can really change your life, the Holy Spirit can really change your life, you have everything you need to live life you ought to, we go, yeah, that's for me. And we hear that promise through a grid, our American grid, which is utterly out of whack. Because all growth is gradual.

Look at every single metaphor the Bible uses. For example, here's 1 Peter 2, verse 2. Peter says, like newborn babes, drink in the spiritual milk of God so that you grow up into your salvation. Now, it's a very, very typical image. When you become a Christian, though you may be physically an adult, you are a baby. You become a Christian and you're a baby. And it says spiritually, like newborn babes, drink in the spiritual milk so that you can spiritually grow up into your salvation. Okay. But now, let's think about that. How

fast does a baby grow? Now, you know, no matter how much, and these American parents are always very much, you know, impatient, you know, you can just throw all the milk you want down the poor baby's throat. Obviously, if the baby does not have good nutrition, the baby will fail to thrive and that's bad. Okay, but no matter how much you feed them, no matter how much you put stuff in there, they're only gonna grow up so fast. No matter how much you do, five year olds will never be six feet tall and they won't play for the NFL

and they won't be able to do calculus. No matter what, I don't care how many great Manhattan preschools you put them through. They're not going to do calculus when they're five. They're not going to be six feet tall. They can only grow so fast, and it's very gradual. Oh, so you say, so I should lower my expectations? No. No. Do you understand what growth can do? Americans all under estimate, they over estimate what they can get done in a year and underestimate what they can get done in five years. Let me show you what I mean. Imagine you had an

acorn and what if you took that acorn and went outside on 83rd street and you chose one big slab of concrete in the sidewalk and you you said, I'm going to destroy, I'm going to break this concrete apart with this acorn. So you get down on your knees and you take the acorn, and you go, ah, ah, ah. Now, a couple things will happen. The second thing will happen is some official from the New York City will come and take you away,

probably, for a second. But the first thing that will happen is your acorn will completely be, they will completely be demolished. It will just be completely destroyed. Because there's no fast way for an acorn to destroy a piece of concrete. But there is a way for an acorn to destroy a piece of concrete. Plant it. Plant it under a sidewalk. Haven't you ever seen, very often, there's places,

there's cemeteries, for example, or there's other places. Have you ever seen these big oak trees that come up? It takes decades and decades, but when they come up, they just roll anything over that's on top of them, even pieces of sidewalk. Have you ever seen sidewalks sort of being pushed up? See, it's not the acorn so much, it's the power of growth in the acorn

that can actually destroy that piece of concrete. And that's the reason why Jesus can use illustrations like, if you have faith, the grain of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. The reason we do not see more radical change in Christian's lives, especially American Christian's lives, is nobody gives it the time. Nobody keeps at it. Nobody does a long obedience in the same direction. Nobody sees the astounding possibilities of change over a long period of time.

We want it now. We want it dramatically. We want deliverance. But spiritual growth is gradual. So it's possible it's gradual. Thirdly, and this is fast, I have to do this very quickly, but the very end of this passage, we also learn that spiritual growth is essential.

This is, what I love about this passage is that there's this side and there's that side, there's on this hand and there's that hand, it's incredibly balanced. Look at verse 10 and 11, I'll read it to you, and you'll probably, if I read it to you, and you'll probably, if I read it to you quickly, which I will, you're likely to get the wrong impression from it. But we'll look at it a little more carefully.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Now, what that looks like, does it not? It says, if you do these things, and that's talking about verses 5 to 8, if you grow, if you develop these virtues, if you develop these character changes, it says, it looks like it's saying that God looks at you and sees that you are worthy of heaven and because of all these growth and change in your life, God receives you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Except look at verse 10, a very important word. It says, therefore brothers and sisters make

every effort to confirm your calling and election. What's election? Well, we've talked about this other times, but see, Christians are not choice people. Choice people are the best, you know, the people who merit God's favor. But chosen people are not choice people. Chosen people are just chosen.

People to just receive God's grace. And when Peter says, I want you to grow to confirm that you're saved by grace, that's the key. But you'll see, look, here's what this means. The reformers, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, the other Protestant reformers, all stressed a very important doctrine. They said the Bible teaches you're justified

by faith alone, you're saved and pardoned and accepted by God by faith alone, not by your good works. You are saved because you have faith in what Jesus has done, not in what you have done. So we're saved by faith, not a bit of faith in a bit of works, good works and good deeds. No, you're saved by faith alone, but they always put it like this.

While you're saved by faith alone, but they always put it like this. While you're saved by faith alone, you're not saved by a faith that stays alone or that remains alone. You're saved by faith alone, that works, but you're not saved by faith that remains alone. It will issue, it will result in a changed life. And here's why. How could you possibly truly believe and come to grips with someone...how can you come to grips with someone who gave himself utterly for you without you giving yourself utterly to him? If you are really...if you really believe that you are saved strictly by the costly grace of God, the grace that cost Jesus Christ's life, what's that going to do?

You've got lots of desires in you. I've got lots of desires in me. I've got selfishness. I've got pride. So do you. There's hardness of harder. But in the end, there will be a desire to delight the one who did that, that all those other desires cannot overwhelm.

In the end, you will want to change, you will desire to change, and you will. And see what Peter's doing, you see what I mean by the balance? On the one hand, Peter's saying, you're saved by grace. You're called, you're chosen, it's all by grace. But how do you know you really believed? If you go year after year after year after year, don't assure yourself that you believed and you're saved by faith alone. If year after year after year after year, you never change.

Don't assure yourself of that. Because anyone who really grasps the grace of God will have a desire to please the one who did that, that all the other problems and desires in our hearts will not be able to extinguish or overwhelm. It will out. It will surface. It will have its way. So that's the reason why I say growth in grace is not only possible and it's gradual, but it's essential. It's got to be there. I'm not trying to put extra doubts in your mind, but on the other hand, you don't want presumption and easy believism either. So that's the third. Spiritual growth is possible. It is gradual. It is essential. Now, this is what most of you have been looking for.

It's practical. That is to say, there are things that you can do. I've already used the metaphor of an acorn. An acorn has this enormous power. You know, it's not just, you realize that out of one acorn not only can come an enormous oak tree, but then other acorns. You realize out of one, somebody once said one acorn could cover the world with wood. It's got that kind of power in that acorn. But it's got to be fertilized. It's got to find the right spot to release the power. So what does that mean? What sort of things? Well, look at verse, what do we have to do practically in order to grow in grace? Well, then look at verses five and

six and seven. There's way more in here than I can take out, but here's what I'd like you to see. First of all, it does take our intentional deliberate effort. It won't happen automatically. It says for this very reason, make every effort to add this and this and grow. Basically, make every effort to grow. That's not let go and let God. That is make every effort. It's diligence, it will not happen automatically, it takes intentionality first of all. Secondly though, this word add, this word add, make every effort to add this to this to this, in other words, the word add is, Peter has deliberately chosen a Greek word

that means to invest. In fact, this is a word that was used in ancient Greek language to describe people that backed artistic and specially theater productions. In those days and in our day, if you wanted to write a play and you wanted to put on a theatrical production, you need patrons, you need people who will invest, who will financially back the production. And in those days, it was the same as it is today. And that's the word that Peter deliberately uses, which is really interesting. Because that tells you a lot.

First of all, an investor is not just a contributor, not just somebody who gives at the office, a little bit here and a little bit there. An investor risks, an investor puts up a lot of capital and therefore one of the things we're being told here is you need to make your own personal growth and grace a major priority. A major priority. But it also means there's a price. Investors pay a price. They take a risk. They think the return is worth it and it certainly is. But they pay a price. In fact, I'd like you to see there's at least three prices.

Now there's more things I could show you than this. Years ago, when I was probably 23 years old, I went to an Episcopal church, South Hamilton, Massachusetts, where J.I. Packer was speaking on growth and grace. And I remember very clearly, I still have the notes from it, I just took the notes on the back, how do you grow in grace? And the three things he said are in here. There's more than these three, but let me just show you, there's three prices you have to pay, there are three practical disciplines that you have to engage in. First, let me just mention them and then go through them. There's you have to pay the price of time with God,

the way of conversing. Secondly, you have to pay the price of vulnerability to other people, the way of exchange. And thirdly, you have to pay the price of submission to God's will, the way of acceptance in suffering. God has worked through Tim Keller's teaching to help countless people discover Christ's redemptive love and grow in their faith as they learn how the gospel is the key to every aspect of life.

This month, we're featuring a brand new book by author Matt Smethurst titled, Tim Keller on the Christian Life. In it, he distills biblical insights from Tim Keller's nearly 50 years of sermons, books, and conference messages, including each of the sermons we've highlighted on the podcast this month. The book explores foundational theological themes from Tim Keller's work, like grace, idolatry, justice, prayer, suffering, and more.

It's a resource that we hope will help you apply the gospel more richly to your everyday life. We'll send you a copy as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the good news of Christ's love with people all over the world. Just visit Gospelinlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's Gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Those are all in here. There's actually others in here, but they're the only ones I got time for and I've never forgotten them. And over the years, I think that these are the three things that you have to do to release the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a magic bullet. It's a magic acorn It's not a quick fix. It's a deep fix But if you do these three things It can cover it can change anything So here's what those three things are first of all as an investor you have to pay the price of time with God Christ of time with God conversing. Verse 3, his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him. Verse 3 says our knowledge of him.

Down in verse 8 it talks about not being ineffective in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You've heard me say this before probably, but when the Bible talks about knowing God or knowing Christ, it's not talking about just information dump. It's not just talking about cognition. It's not simply saying you're going to know about God or you're going to know about Jesus. You're going to get more Bible knowledge or something like that. No, no. What it's talking about is knowing. That's relational. And this is a simple fact. You have no relationship with someone unless you're spending time with them. And actually, usually time alone with them.

You have no real relationship with people unless you're spending time with them. And therefore, the first price you've gotta pay, and it is really expensive, is you have to win the daily battle to spend time alone with God every day. Or you don't have a relationship. You don't know him. You can say you know him, you say you believe in him. I mean, I have

people in my life that I really used to know. If you ask me, do you know that person? I say, yeah, I know that person personally. But if I haven't talked to them face to face, or even communicated with them in 20 years, and when you get to be my age, there's a lot of people that I used to know that I haven't talked to in 20 years. I don't really know them anymore, not really. And you don't know God unless you're paying the price for time alone with him. To interact. When you read the Bible, you're hearing from him. When you adore and you confess and you examine yourself and you thank God and you petition

and you lay your needs in front of him. That's prayer. You're speaking to him. When you're hearing him in his word, he's speaking to you. When you're praying, you're speaking to him. That's the way of conversing. And you have to pay the price. You have to win the battle of time every day,

or else, sorry, your acorn's just gonna stay an acorn. Secondly, you not only have to do that, but there's also the price of being vulnerable to people. The way of exchange. This word mutual affection that comes up twice here is actually the Greek word Philadelphia, which means brotherly love. You've heard the city of brotherly love.

But actually, I don't think we stop and understand the power of this. A big part of growth and grace is I don't think we stop and understand the power of this. A big part of growth and grace is sibling friendship. Philadelphia means sibling friendship. If you have a sibling, a brother or sister, that person is someone you know extraordinarily well. You know, you've got an enormous amount of common history and an enormous amount of common experience.

And then there's your friends. Philos is the Greek word for friendship. It's not erotic love, which is romance. It's not agape love, which is serving other people. Philos means friendship. And it means having a lot of things in common. And you know, we've talked about friendship in the past. But here's what happens.

What if you have a sibling who's your best friend? What if you have a sibling who is your best friend? What if you have a sibling who is your best friend in the world too? Do you realize how powerful that is? That is what we're being told should be your relationship with your spiritual friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ. You've got to have some people in your life that Hebrews 3.13, one of the most astounding verses in the Bible, Hebrews 3.13, exhort one another daily or you'll be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Every one of us, our biggest sins hide themselves from us. We're deceived by our own sin. Do you have people in your life who have the right to

daily regularly come because you've given daily, regularly come, because you've given them a hunting license, because you've given them a warrant and they've given you a warrant, to come and tell you what's wrong with you? Have you got people like that? Have you got people deputized? Or are you really the kind of person that nobody would dare do that to? Then your acorn's going to stay an acorn. You can just kiss spiritual growth goodbye. See, that's not sibling friendship.

That's not the way of exchange. Speaking the truth in love, bearing one another's burdens, counseling one another, confessing sins to one another, building each other up, all those one another passages. Now, the reason I said you have to pay the price of being vulnerable is that if you enter into these relationships, the kind of relationships you have to pay the price of being vulnerable is that if you enter into these relationships, the kind of relationships you've got to have if you're going to grow in grace, at certain points you are going to get hurt. You will get hurt. People will abuse the right you gave them.

It will be harmful, it will be hurtful and you'll weep. But that's just the price you pay. If you pull yourself in and make yourself so private that your heart can't be broken in these relationships, then your heart becomes unbreakable and hard. You need to pay the price of what? First of all, time with God, the way of conversing, time alone. Secondly, the price of being vulnerable to other people, that's the way of exchanging. If you're not willing to be vulnerable unless you have got relationships like that, you can just kiss spiritual growth goodbye.

And then thirdly, and this is one we actually spent at all the services last week, we spent an entire week on it, the whole sermon on it, so I can only briefly talk about it, but it's crucial. And that is the third discipline for spiritual growth is what I just called the way of acceptance. You have to pay the price of submission to God's will. That under duress, under suffering, you accept God's will and you say, thy will be done.

See the word perseverance? Perseverance is a huge part of growth and grace. Why? Let me give you a definition of perseverance. It means that when you suffer, you stay put. What do I mean by that? That's everything. When you suffer, if you stay put, if you bear up,

if you stand your ground, if you do all the things that God was requiring of you and that you were doing before you started suffering, if you stay put in suffering, it's gonna turn you into something great. So for example, Job. Before all Job's suffering, he was a praying man. He regularly sacrificed and he prayed. He was a man who prayed.

Then in came all the suffering. What kind of suffering? Well, he lost all of his children died, all of his money was wiped away, and terrible diseases came upon him. And you think you got trouble. So there's Job. And as soon as all this happens,

we spend chapter after chapter listening to Job do many things. First of all, he screams and he yells and he tears his clothes and he falls on the ground and he curses the day he was born and he's complaining and he's griping and he's questioning God and at one point he says, I wish you could appear in front of me because I've got some questions for you. And he's after God, and you know, wow, you're reading all this stuff, amazing stuff that he says to God, really angry, really upset, coming really close, well, not just coming close, going over and charging God with being unfair. And then you get to the end of the book, and God vindicates Job, and he says, you were faithful to me Job, and then you say, did I miss something? No, you didn't. Or maybe you did, because here's the point.

Before Job's suffering, he was praying, and after Job's suffering, he was praying. All that biting the rug and screaming and charging God with, you know, incompetence and cursing that he was born, that was in prayer. He didn't stop praying. He processed all that in prayer. Here's the point. Before your suffering, are you studying the Bible every day? Are you going to church? Are you obeying the Ten Commandments? Okay, after your suffering, keep that up and you will be amazed. See, here's what we do. When suffering comes, we get into self-pity. We get into tremendous self-pity.

Bad things are happening, so we don't feel like going to church. We don't feel like obeying. I knew a guy some years ago, I remember, he had tremendous financial problems, and in the midst of his financial troubles, he had an affair. And I remember he told me, he says, I felt

like considering all the other things that were going wrong with me and everything I was suffering, I deserved this. See, that's fatal self-pity. I deserved this. So what did he do? He didn't stand his ground. He did not stay put. He started doing something under ordinary circumstances he wouldn't have done. Then of course he blew up his marriage on top of the fact blowing up his career. It didn't make things better, now did it? I'm not talking about having affairs that don't have an affair. What I'm talking about is if you are suffering, persevere. What does that mean? Just do what you were doing before. If you're reading the Bible, read the Bible. If you're praying, pray. If you're going to church, go to church. Obey the Ten Commandments, obey. And if you stay put,

that pressure will turn your little coal heart into a diamond. You know, coal turns into a diamond under pressure. In that fire, your ore will become beautiful gold. Almost never do we really grow in grace unless these three things are happening. Pay the price. Invest. It's worth it. Pay the price of what? Conversing with God, time alone with God. Pay the price of vulnerability and intimate fellowship, sibling friendship, spiritual friendship with other brothers and sisters in Christ, and lastly, pay the price of saying under tremendous stress and suffering, thy will be done, and just standing, pat, staying put, not retreating, holding your ground.

And you'll become a person, you know what the capstone of all this is? Add to faith, goodness to goodness, knowledge to knowledge, self-control. We could go through and every one of those is interesting. But where does it climax? It's in love. Why does it climax in love? Because that's freedom. Love is the ability to put your own happiness in someone else's happiness. See, before you become a person of love, all that matters is everyone serves your happiness. You've got your goals, you've got things that you want. Other people need to serve your happiness,

and guess what, they never will. They never will. You spend all of your time being sorry for yourself, being unhappy, self-absorbed, looking at yourself, feeling like things aren't fair. A person of love is someone who puts your happiness in other people's happiness, meaning you're only happy if they're happy. You're only happy when they're delighted, when they're thriving,

when they're flourishing, and honestly, that is freedom. And that only comes if you grow, if you grow in grace through these practices. Now, lastly, I said the word wonderful. Why did I use that word? I'll tell you why at the I think ultimately Everything I've said You could get kind of lost You could miss you might say you could miss the forest for the trees because yes, okay

I got to spend time conversing with God, but what are you gonna converse with God about? Yes, I need to be ministering to my brothers and sisters in Christ, but what are you gonna be exchanging? What are you gonna actually be talking about? It tells us here, the key to it all is to be filled with awe and wonder and to have your heart melted

because you're remembering something, that you're always remembering and not forgetting something. What is it? Whoever, this is verse 9, whoever does not have these things, in other words, if you're not growing, here's why. You've forgotten how you were cleansed from your past sins. How will you cleanse from your past sins? The blood of Jesus.

And what this means is it's simple. I only have a second to, so I'll slow down, I'll be quiet, I'll speak slowly, so it sinks in. You have to constantly remember the fact that you have been saved by grace through the costly blood of Jesus Christ. And that ultimately is the content, the substance, the heart of what you're talking to God about, what you're talking

to other people about, and how you're able to stay put under suffering. Why would you stay put under suffering? Why would you trust God under suffering? You're just going to say, well, I need to stay put, I need to trust God under suffering. Why? Because then I'll grow in grace. That's all abstraction. Because God is holy, I need to trust him. Yeah, that's true. But that's an abstraction too. Look at Jesus Christ cleansing you from your sins by dying on the cross. Look what he's bearing for you. Remember that. Don't

forget it. If you remember that, you'll be able to bear up for him. He say, if he's bearing all that suffering for me infinitely more, I bear this suffering for him see that's the key Years ago. I was in the morning. I read a Bible passage It was in the Old Testament where God is telling the children of Israel be good to the aliens and the immigrants among you See in Israel there were people from who were non-jews. They're either refugees or immigrants They were aliens in a foreign country, and God says, even though they're not Jews,

you be good to them, why? Because you were aliens and strangers in Egypt and immigrants in Egypt, and I brought you out. A little later, a few hours later, I was in a line at a grocery store, and the line was going so slowly, and because If you think Americans are impatient, New Yorkers are the most impatient of all Americans. And it was

going so slow. We were all grumbling to each other in line. We were saying what does it matter with her? They were looking at the cashier. She didn't seem to know what she was doing. And I was grumbling what's going on. And as I got a little closer I came to see that she was someone whose English was so bad that she was just making a lot of mistakes and I started to say why did they even give her that job? If she doesn't have the language skills to do the job, then she shouldn't even be there. This is what's taking all my time and then I suddenly remembered. Hmm. Be kind to the aliens, the immigrants among you. Why? Because what do you think you were? You were alienated, but I saved you, I brought you out.

And as soon as I remembered that, it just melted me. Why? Because I was thinking, well, wait a minute, I've been saved, I was an alien, God brought me out, God was kind to me. See, the reason I was grumpy was I'd forgotten. And what helped me grow at that moment was I remembered. Whoever does not grow in these ways is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Or, look, and here's the ultimate way you'll be able to remember

and not forget that Jesus died for you. When Jesus was up on the cross and he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you know what he's actually saying? He's actually saying, my God, my God, why have you forgotten me? When I was a teenager, the thing I most dreaded, because I wasn't a very outgoing kid, was that when I missed a group or I missed a class or I missed, you know, in other words, if something was happening every week and I would miss a week or two, I would come back

and I could tell nobody knew I had been gone. I'd been forgotten, it was clearly, it's just, you feel so, like, so dehumanized when you realize that nobody cared that you were gone, you know, they're nice to you when you're there, but when you're not there, they don't even remember that you're not there. They completely forgot you, because,

and you know, it's very dehumanizing. Well, think of what Jesus went through. Why is it that on the cross, God, as it were, forgot Jesus? Oh, that doesn't mean that God can forget anything, but he turned away from Jesus Christ. Jesus was forgotten. Why? Because Jesus gets what we deserved. We spend all of our time forgetting God, forgetting that we owe him everything. He created us. He redeemed us. We should be thinking about him all the time. We should never forget him, but we do forget him. And what would be the just desserts for people who have forgotten God?

We should be forgotten. But instead, Jesus Christ gets what we deserved. He was forgotten so that God can say, I will never forget you. Isaiah 49 verses 14 to 16, you have said, why has the Lord forsaken me? But can a mother forget the baby who nurses at her breast? Yea, she may forget, but I will never forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hands." Look at the palms of Jesus' hands, nail prints. Because Jesus Christ was forgotten,

God will never forget you. And that, if you remember that, it'll turn you into something great. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that you would help us through all the disciplines of spiritual disciplines that will enable us to grow that we will see that at the heart of it all is to remember what your Son Jesus Christ did to cleanse us from our sins and we ask

that you would grow us in grace. It's what we most need. It's what we most need and will glorify you. Help us to take all these great promises that we've talked about tonight and apply them to our lives through your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you and helped you have a deeper understanding of 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 GospelinLife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 2014. 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.