Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Power To Change

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

We’re looking at the most strange, enigmatic, perplexing things Jesus ever said. This is one of them. People always blink a bit when they read it.  But here, Jesus is actually teaching us about power to change. He’s telling us something extremely practical.  Even though it’s an enigmatic passage, Jesus is basically saying three things: 1) There are many ways to change, 2) if you use any way but Jesus, you’ll be worse off than before, and 3) Jesus is the only one who can give you the power to change thoroughly and permanently. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 7, 1993. Series: Hard Sayings of Jesus (1993). Scripture: Luke 11:14-26. Today's podcast episode 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. Jesus was a great teacher, but he had a lot of things to say that were challenging or difficult to understand. In the Bible, we see a number of places where his disciples say, Jesus, this is a hard saying. Today Tim Keller is preaching through one of the hard sayings of Jesus and how we can rest in the fact that while Jesus' teachings aren't always comfortable, He is always good. Jesus was driving out of demon. That was mute. And when the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke.

The crowd was amazed, but some of them said, by be else above, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons. Others tested him by asking him for a sign. Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fail. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?

I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by a bell's above. Now claim that I drive out demons by B.L.s above. Now, if I drive out demons by B.L.s above, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are safe, but when someone's stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusts and divides up the spoils.

He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid desert places seeking rest and does not find it. When it says, I will return to the house I left, and when it arrives it finds the house swept clean and put in order. And when it goes and takes seven other spirits, more wicked than itself, they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the

first. This is God's Word. Now we've chosen and we are continuing to choose what we call the hard sayings of Jesus. We're looking at the most strange, enigmatic, perplexing and confusing things Jesus ever said, and showing what great teaching there is in there. This is one of them. It's a very odd passage, and people always blink a bit when they read Jesus says, well, you know when an evil spirit goes out of a man and wanders around through the desert looking for a place to live.

And when it comes back and finds that the man's life is all swept and all discipline and all put together again, but empty, he brings back seven more demons and they run on inside there and things are worse than before. And people have looked at that over the years and said, I can't believe that. I can't understand that. Jesus is actually teaching us about power to change. He's telling us something that's extremely practical. He here is talking about power to change. And I wanna show you that even though it's a very

a very enigmatic passage, he's basically saying three things. Number one, there's many ways to change. There's many ways to cast your demons out. There's many ways to get power. Secondly, if you use any other way but me, you will be worse off than before. And thirdly, he's of course saying, I am the one who can bind the strong man. I'm the only one that can help you and give you power to change thoroughly and permanently. Now let's take a look at that. First, Jesus casts out a demon, and a lot of people immediately say, wait a minute, wait

a minute. What is this casting out demon stuff? And I better at least say one brief thing, but then point out that you do not need to understand or even believe in demonic exorcism in order to understand what Jesus is saying here today. Yes, Jesus casts out a demon. Jesus believes and teaches that there are such things as personal supernatural evil beings,

personal supernatural evil beings. When he talks about demons going about in the desert, looking for a place to rest, he's actually teaching us the malignity of evil because these demons, once they're cast out of a human soul, are looking for the most desolate, devastated, forsaken places possible to live. They're only comfortable around absolute devastation. However, they can only really rest when they're dominating a human soul. So they go out looking around for the most devastating ugly horrible

possible places, but they come they need to dominate a soul. Is Jesus teaching that? Yeah, yes he is. If you believe however as many people do that that's naivete If you say oh, that's the pre-scientific idea that didn't understand that that there's a physiological and there's an emotional basis for many of these illnesses. Jesus is participating in a pre-scientific worldview that saw the monogactivity as the basis for all our problems. You're wrong.

Jesus very clearly in the Bible makes a distinction between people who are sick, people who are sad, and people who are possessed. He doesn't treat every sick person as a duodenment possessed. You can just look through. As a matter of fact, Jesus approaches to say, you're naive.

If you don't recognize the multi-dimensional nature of evil and the multi-dimensional nature of our problems. So look out there. Do you think all of our problems are natural and human? Do you think that's all the problems that we're dealing with? The origin is natural and human, then why isn't therapy and science and education dealing with them? No, there's something much more wicked and more intelligent at work here. And all he's saying is, you're naive if you think the evil only has one form. It's both human and inhuman. It's both personal and impersonal. It's both natural and

supernatural. And if you don't recognize the multidimensional nature of it, you're being simplistic. You're being naive and you'll be defeated. Now, having said that, we have to keep this in mind. Jesus' purpose in this passage is not to teach you about the demon possession, how to do an exorcism. That's not his point. Instead, he's saying something that even at those of you who are wondering what you think about this, you can still understand this point regardless of what your views are on such matters. Because Jesus' major point is that you don't have to either be used demonic power or God's power to handle your problems.

When he casts out the demon, the religious leaders who were very upset with him anyway, they try to write off what he did and they said, he drives out demons by the power of the devil. He drives out the devil by the power of Bielzabub. And Jesus turns the tables on him very quickly. And he says, if I cast out demons only by the power of the Bielzabub, why or how do your followers cast them out? What he's pointing out is that the Pharisees did cast out demons, they did exorcisms. We know this from ancient writings, we know this from Jewish historians like Josephus,

we know that the Pharisees also cast out demons, they delivered people from problems. And Jesus is actually saying something very nuanced and very sophisticated. He's saying, don't be so either or. Don't be so everything this way or that way. There are many ways to deliver people. He says, look at your followers.

How are they casting out demons? If you're saying the only way to cast out demons is by the power of the devil, how are they casting out demons? If you're saying the only way to cast out demons is by the power of the devil, how are they doing? And here's what Jesus is saying. He says, listen, they're casting out demons without my power or demonic power. There are many ways to get deliverance. There are many sources of power. You see how sophisticated Jesus is being. Don't you see how he sees everybody else

as being actually too, as we put it, reductionistic? Look for example at depression. Why does a person get depressed? Well, the biologist says it's chemistry. And maybe the moralist says it's sin, the person is guilty. They need to repent. And the psychologist says, no, it's a failure to cope. And the superstitious says it's a demon, cast them out. You see, biblically, God has made us multi-dimensional.

And that means that we are physical and we are social and we are spiritual and we are psychological. And as a result, there are many sources of power. A person will be able to be helped through all sorts of ways. How was it possible that the Pharisees themselves were delivering people? Helping them out. How could they have done exorcisms without either demonic power or divine power? And the answer is, there's all sorts of ways of helping people with their problems. Jesus saying we have to recognize that. All we know is emotional catharsis, or will power in self-discipline, or maybe a kind of group therapy, maybe what the Pharisees were doing, but the fact is, so we call it

today, but the fact of the matter is they were delivering people. Now, before we move on, let's see the implications of this. I'm constantly hearing people say, well, if it works for them, if their religion works for them, if it helps them, don't knock it. Don't you see the superficiality of it? The Pharisees were the one group of people

that Jesus screamed at. He didn't scream at anybody else. He didn't scream at Zacchaeus, the tax collector, the corrupt, sinful, rich person. And he didn't scream at the prostitutes, you know, the corrupt, sinful, poor person. He didn't scream at anybody, it was very you know, the crept sinful poor person.

He didn't scream at anybody, it was very, very kind, but when he came to the Pharisees, he yelled, you brood of vipers, why? They were self-righteous, they were twisted, they were legalistic, they were their particular form of religion and philosophy was absolutely spiritually pathological and toxic. Jesus said, I want anyone to get near them, and yet they produced deliverance. The fact of the matter is any religion, any philosophy, any theory, any group of people

can produce men and women who say they've been, their lives have been changed. Who say, I have been over, I've overcome great bad habits. I have new peace in my life. Religions and philosophies utterly add odds with each other in their teaching, completely contradicting one another about the nature of the world and God and the afterlife and so on. Completely contradicting one another.

Yet every one of them can produce deliverance, every one of them can cast out demons, every one of them can help you with their problems. Why? Because there are sources of power where physical beings and social beings and psychological beings and there's all sorts of ways of getting help. But you must never, therefore, say that means it must be true. Listen, Christianity is not true because it works.

Of course, it helps people with their problems. It's not true because it's works, it works because it's true. And many things that are not true still work. Many religions, many philosophies, even Phariseism worked for people. It helped them. They cast out demons by it. And therefore, we have to see there are many kinds of

sources for helping people with their problems. There are many places where you can get help. There are many ways in which you can overcome your problems. But just because you've been helped, doesn't mean that what you have there is the truth. That's the first point. It doesn't mean that what you have there is the truth. That's the first point. The first point is Jesus says there's many ways, at this first point, there's many sources of power

for you to deal with your practical, from which you can deal with your practical problems. Second, second, Jesus then, however, adds, if you turn to any other power but me to get self-control and to get power over your problems so you can change, you'll be worse off in the end than you were before you started.

So you, on the one hand, Jesus is not an all naïve. He says, look, I know there's all sorts of ways of dealing with your problems. You don't have to be a Christian to overcome alcoholism. You don't have to be a Christian to get your marriage back together. You don't have to be a Christian. You don't have to come to Christ in order to get emotional self-control, to get yourself back on track, to start to do well in your career.

If Christianity was only about practical overcoming of problems, well, he says, then you couldn't tell that Christianity was true, because he says there's all sorts of ways of doing that. He said, let's be realistic. But then he says, however, secondly, if you turned any other one of them except me in the angel be worse off than before. And he tells this story, so you know, this strange story, the demons in the desert story,

makes no sense unless you see he's already been talking about the fact that the Pharisees have been able to also cast out demons and help people with their problems and deliver people without the power of God. And he is clearly giving us a case illustration in verse 24. He is saying, let me tell you about this. It's very possible for you to overcome your demons.

It's very possible for you to cast out these things and get self-control and put your life in order without the regenerating work of the Spirit of God, without Jesus becoming your center. Of course, that's possible, but look what happens. When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid desert places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I'll return to the house I left. And when it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order, swept clean and put in order, and it finds however there's nobody in there. And therefore he comes on him with seven more spirits worse than him, and that man's last fate was worse than the first. What's

Jesus saying? First of all he's saying it's possible to put your life in order, we've already seen it without Jesus. You can sweep your house. You can get everything in order. It was a wreck before. But what he's pointing out here is, you know how they say, nature abours a vacuum. I've never been able to figure that out.

Have you ever figured out what that means? I've heard it for years. But one thing I do know is that the soul abours a vacuum. And what Jesus is saying is, the soul abours a vacuum. And what Jesus is saying is the only way to get power to change is if you give yourself over to something. You don't get power to change in the abstract. You get power to change because you get a motivation.

You get something that dominates you. You get a new motive. You get something. You give yourself over to something. Something possesses you in order for you to get changed, change power. And he says, unless it's me, you will find yourself worse off than before. Let me give you a couple of small illustrations and then the big one. Small illustrations. How many times have you seen this? Those of us who are male, how many times have this happened to you when you were growing up and you were crying and you were losing it?

And some didn't, hasn't that ever happened to you? Somebody came up to you and said, don't cry. Why? Be a man, right? Men don't cry. Now generally nobody's been saying it to women as a result. Here's the difference. That, can that little boy use that in order to get emotional self-control? Can he sweep and cart, you know, and put his life in order? Sure. He casts out the lack of self-control.

He casts out, nobody must be an emotional wreck, but what's he put in his place? What's there instead? A fear of looking weak. And that is now something that he's given himself over to. And that is the reason he he's given himself over to. And that is the reason he's got his house in order. But isn't it possible that that's seven times worse? Isn't it possible that's going to make it a very, it's going to be very difficult, for example,

for that person to have a good marriage? You can't have a good marriage if you can't admit to your week. Look, it goes on further. Why is it that some of us? I say, listen, there's a lot of people whose parents come to this country and they just eat out of living. And there's great pressure as they're not on the second generation to go off, go to graduate school and get a really good job and to establish the family dignity and status and fortune. You know what I'm talking about. And as a result, there's tremendous pressure put on you and you have tremendous self-control. Much more self-control than families who just don't seem to care.

Much more self-control than broken families that are weak and they don't care at all. You've got a lot of control. Man, look at you. Look at the grades. Look at you moving and moving and moving. But I wonder, don't you moving and moving and moving, but I wonder, don't you see where you're getting your power? Don't you see where you're getting your self-control? You've given yourself over to something else.

And when you've given yourself, what if you've given yourself over to something that's going to drive you, maybe drive you into the dust? What Jesus is saying is, it's the disorderly houses sometimes. It's the people without self control, sometimes that are closer to the kingdom of God than those of us who have given ourselves over to something else which actually keeps us further from God in order to have swept and ordered houses. That's the reason why Jesus said to the Pharisees, the prostitutes and the pimps go into the kingdom of heaven before you.

Why would he say that? How could he say that? These people whose lives or wrecks are more likely to understand the truth, and that is, and this is, of course, the bottom line. This is the reason why Jesus can always say that if you get self-control and power of your problems any other way but me, you're worse off.

And that is that the Bible says that the root lie, that it's the bottom of all of our problems is, we're in charge, we don't really need God. And of course, to get self-control without God only confirms the lie and sets you up for a much greater fall later on. For many in our culture today, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea, challenging some of their deepest beliefs.

In her book Confronting Christianity, 12 hard questions for the world's largest religion. Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin explores the hard questions that keep many people from considering faith in Christ. Tackling issues including gender and sexuality, science and faith, and the problem of suffering. McLaughlin shows that what seems like roadblocks to faith in Jesus can become signposts to a relationship with Him. Confronting Christianity is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world So request your copy today at Gospel and Life dot com slash give that's Gospel and Life dot com slash give Now I'm I'm just confess. Let me give you a great example of bad counseling that I myself did as a counselor was

You know my own self images and totally wrapped up in counseling if you were a therapist you would have a lot was. You know, my own self-image isn't totally wrapped up in counseling. If you were a therapist, you would have a lot more trouble. You see, sharing this. Well, when I was about 25 and I was a pastor, and it's just kind of a frightening thought, in Virginia, something that was very difficult. Whoops, am I doing that to it? Oh gosh. Something that is hard for New Yorkers to understand was I was in a town of 23,000 people, and there were no professional counselors in town.

In New York, there's about, there's a professional counselor for every 10 people. But not there. And as a result of that, a man came to me to say, I'm having trouble. I need counseling. There's no counselors in counseling. I'm going to go to a pastor. He says, the only problem is, is I don't want you to talk about religion.

I have no interest in that. I don't want you to do that. Can you help me? Well, now, 25 year old, I have a little bit naive. I said, I think I can. I wanted to help. You know, I want to please. So I got out all the books, the various books on counseling I got.

And I actually sat down and listened to them. And there was a lot of things I did. The first thing I did was I realized he's a physical being. And therefore, he needed to be very, very careful to watch what he was eating and also to get into an exercise program. I said, you need to get an exercise program. Second thing I noticed, of course, is he's a social being. And that means he was isolated.

He was alone and lonely. And therefore, I said, I'm going to try to get you into connection with a couple other people like yourself who have gone through some of the same things. So you could talk with one another, and in a sense I set up a support group. And then thirdly, I also knew he was a volitional being, and he wasn't very disciplined about his time. And I knew that if we filled his life full of good things

and we really worked out a good schedule, and we made him accountable to some people to stick with that schedule, so that he busy, he didn't spend a lot of time staring at the walls at night, then he'd feel better. And so through because he's a volitional and a social and a physiological being, we started working on these things and you see there that because human nature is multi-dimensional, they worked. They helped. And he started feeling a great deal better. And he was really doing much better. But I also realized, as I was counseling, that underneath it all,

the real problem was that he was in a very talented family and a very bright family. Everyone was doing doing very well. and he was not doing well professionally. He never was going to do very well professionally. He was a very ordinary person. And underneath it all, he really, really knew that he was failing. And underneath it all, that was the reason why he was so

susceptible to be depressed when anything went wrong. So one day, I was starting to read the psych books about that and I realized the psychology books said, well now what you have to do is you have to show them that he is, he's in bondage to the standards of other people and he needs to set his own standards and decide what he wants and go after that. But even a 25 year old minister realized that at that point the psychology book was actually without admitting it and never wanted to admit it, getting involved in religion. Because what it was saying is this guy doesn't have something big enough in his life to live

for that he can really reach. And so he has to change his standards. And we're talking about values. We're talking about what's right and wrong. And I've talked to him a little bit about that. I began to realize what I was asking to do if the psych book was right, was lower standards so that he could reach them. And even he wasn't so stupid as to realize how in the world am I going to get self-respect that way by lowering my standards. Finally one day I looked at him and I

said, you know, I think what you really need is to know that you're loved. You need to know that you're forgiven. I think you need to know that God loves you. I think you need to understand the gospel. And he said, hey, I thought we had a deal here. He says, you've helped me. And he walked away. He says, you've helped me a great deal. And I said, I don't know whether I've really gotten you ready for the future. Two years later, I was talking to a doctor once, and the doctor was talking about something completely different, and I realized what I'd done.

The doctor said, the trouble with patients is they only want you to treat the symptoms. He says, patients are in pain. And he told me, the doctor told me it was a cardinal rule of medical treatment that if you treated the pain, before you found out the cause of the pain, you were breaking one of the rules of medical diagnosis. It says, until you know why the person hurts, you better not get rid of the hurt through

all kinds of pain killers. Is the problem is the patient wants those pain killers and the patient doesn't care that much about why the hurts, where the hurt's coming from. They put pressure on you to cure the symptoms. and the patient doesn't care that much about where the hurt is coming from. They put pressure on you to cure the symptoms. They put pressure on you to make them feel better. And yet they'll be happy. They'll think that you have done a wonderful job if they feel better, even though they're

walking around with some little bomb ticking inside. And you don't even know where it is or what it is and it's ready to go off. I suddenly realized what I'd done to that man. And I began to also realize what Jesus means when he says how easy it is because there's many sources of power to superficially treat yourself. When underneath the whole thing, you've got to know that you're loved. You've got to know that there is a God and only his standards count. Not with your parents say, only his standards count, not with your professional peers say, only his standards count, not even what you say, only his standards count.

And unless you're possessed by him, you'll be possessed by something else. And the more self-control you get by by giving yourself over to other masters besides Jesus, the more those other masters will dominate you, the more self-control you lose, you see, in some ways, the closer you are to see the truth, and that is, you need God. That's why Jesus says the prostitutes and the pimps get into the kingdom of God before you. That's the reason why revivals have always happened amongst the poor.

That's the reason why even today, most people who are born again are people who have lived in poverty. The reason why it's sweeping through the third world, as they call it, sweeping through Latin America and Africa and Asia, and reason why it's dead and the most materialistic and the most together parts of the world is for this very reason. Because the more you learn that you can sweep, and you can't tap into other power sources and sweep and garnish and sweep and put your house

in order without God, you'll do it. Until you find too late, something much worse is in there, something that's controlling you and driving you into the ground. Lastly, Jesus says, one, there's lots of ways to solve your problems. You don't need Christianity. Lots of things that aren't true will help you and help you quite effectively. Number two, that anything that you rely on, anything you, anything that you rely on to give you power and self control besides me means you're giving yourself over to something that's far worse.

You'll be worse off in the end than you were in the beginning. Lastly, he says, I'm the one who can find the strong man. I and I only am the one who can take over and break through any strongholds or any problems in your life, that's, and I can do it thoroughly and completely and permanently. No relapses with me in the end. That's the reason why he says, when a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are safe, but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and drives up the spoils. If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. Just a finger. See, the power of Jesus Christ

is so great. All it takes a finger extended towards you and he says, I can I can destroy anything that is binding you. Now, what Jesus is saying is, what the illustration is, is here's a man who had clean and swept his house, but he hadn't let Jesus move in. As a result, it's empty and anything can get in there. What that means is Jesus is saying, it's not good enough for you to believe in me, it's not good enough for you to just try to emulate me, but it means to be a Christian,

what it means to have power is for you to let me possess you. It says, if you don't possess me something else, if you don't, if you're not possessed by me, something else will, to be possessed by Jesus. I know we only use the word possessed in a negative way. We think of being possessed, we think of the exorcist. Possessed, we think of envy and greed. But the fact is that Jesus says, what it means to be a Christian is to let me possess you. Of course, the word possess sounds negative because anything else that possesses you drives you crazy. He says, I'm the only one who if I possess you, I will drive you absolutely saying. Look, and in the Bible, you want to know how to do this? This is how to conclude this way.

How do you do this? How do you let Jesus own the house? How do you let Jesus possess you? There's a negative and a positive, and it's in the book of Ephesians chapter 4, it says, put off the old self, be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new. Now, let me show you, in other words, you put off one part and you put on the new. There's a negative and as a positive way to be possessed. When I had that church, it was in a southern, very blue-collar culture. And I'll never forget one man, when he became converted, went beyond where a lot of other people seemed to go.

And he says, I really want Jesus to be my Lord and Master. And so we spent a great deal of time together. One of the things he found out and I found out was that being a blue-collar southern male, he was characterized by four things, four very important values. One was frugality and thrift, simple living. Secondly, hospitality and openness and friendliness. Thirdly, an escorn of education. And fourthly, racism.

Now what happened was, first of all, he began to, when he realized that Jesus Christ had to possess him and be his master, he started to examine his life completely. One of the great things about letting Christ possess you is you stop being a robot or an animal. You don't do things by instinct, you don't do things any more mechanically.

You don't do things because, well, I'm Irish, that's how Irish people do it. I'm Park Avenue, that's how Park Avenue people do it. You see, I'm Black, that's how Black people do it. No more instincts. Instead, you examine everything, and you say, is this what Jesus wants? When he looked at his racism and his squorn of education, he almost immediately began to realize that the reason he was characterized by those two things was that's how he kept his own self-image short up.

That's how he got rid of his own sense of inferiority. And when his gospel self-image developed, when he began to realize that he was accepted in Christ, he didn't need to score in those people with education. He only had a third grade education. He had to score in education until his in Jesus, he began to realize who he was. And he also had to score in people of other races

so that he could deal with the sense of inferiority. But you know what's interesting? He stayed frugal. He realized the Bible says to be frugal, but he realized that he had been frugal to everybody, including his family, including charities. And he realized now the reason for being frugal is because since I, which Jesus, everything, my possessions aren't mine. They're his. And I have to use them his way. He was renovated from the inside out. He put off the old self. He examined every part of his life. He was dominated by Jesus. He was possessed by Jesus and he began to change.

In a way that I often didn't see other people change. Many people said they were Christians and they brought all of their culture right into the church with them. For Galilee and hospitality, just like the Bible says, Scorn of Education Erasism, which of course the Bible doesn't say, there was in the church, why? Because they just brought it on in, they weren't really changed, they didn't, they believed in Jesus, but they didn't let him possess. Possess. Jesus says, you're going to be possessed by something, be possessed by me, put off the old self, and then on the other hand put on the new. What it means to be possessed by Jesus, to put on the new means that you continually rejoice in who you are in Jesus. You let that be the thing that energizes you. This is not as vague as it sounds.

In Luke chapter 10 verse 20, Jesus hears his disciples come back, and his disciples say, we can cast out demons with your power. Even the demons are subject to us, and Jesus is very worried about them. And he looks at them and he says, in Luke 10 verse 20, he says, rejoice not that the demons are subject to your name,

but that your names are written in heaven. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, do you know what's going on? You're getting self-control, you're getting confidence, your career is on the way up, because you're filling your mind with, you're exulting in, you're glorying in, you're driving joy from, you're relishing your power. Oh, don't do that, he says. It'll crush you. It'll, don't do that, he says. It'll crush you. It'll, don't let that energize you.

A lot of people get self-control by power. They think about the power. They think about this, they think about their money, they think about how I want to achieve that. And that's where you get your power to change. That's where you get yourself control in your discipline. Jesus says, don't do that.

Instead, he says, rejoice that your names are written in heaven. He says, in other words, live off of a platform of glory and an exalt, discipline yourself to relish and have your mind inflamed with the joy of what I have done for you. I stand before the Father and your names are engraved on a precious stone over my heart, the Bible says. When God looks at you, he sees a special treasure. God loves you as he loves me. And as a result, he is committed to you. That means he's eventually going to take the unrulyness and all the hurts of your heart and he's going to eliminate them and he's going to present you before his presence someday in faultless, glorious, limitless greatness. in faultless, glorious, limitless greatness. Think of that, relish that, rejoice in that and nothing out, let that possess you

and you'll be able to face anything. What I wanted to say to that man, what I should have 25 years old, I looked at him, what I should have said is my dear friend, whatever you've got now that's given you this new control in your life is only a sense that you're able to handle things. Whatever you've got, is it going to enable you to sing in the darkest storm?

Is it going to enable you to face death itself and look at it and laugh in its face and say, you can't take away what I've got. Only if Jesus is possessing your soul, will you be able to sing in the face of that kind of storm? Only if Jesus possesses your soul, will you be able to face those kinds of mantras forces and say, what I've got, you can't take away. Nothing will crush me.

Nothing! Rejoice not in this and this and this and this, but that your names are written in heaven. Christian friends, I want you to know the reason that you and I don't live the kind of life that Bible talks about. The reason that we're not slicing through all the problems that are in front of us this coming week

is because we are rejoicing in other things. We're letting other things possess us. Don't. Rejoice not. That the demons are subject to you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Let's pray. Father, we're going to come to you as we take the bread

and as we take the cup, help us to see that this is our way of rejoicing and standing on a platform of what you've done for us and what you are to us. Oh, enable us to rejoice not in the things we're rejoicing in, but in what your son did. Now, at your table, we ask if Jesus is here. Thanks for listening to today's Teaching from Dr. Keller. If you were encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a gospel and life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people access resources like this podcast.

Just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993 and 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Ch-ch-ch.