Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Radical Generosity

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

It’s artificial to avoid the subject of money when so many of your problems, your worries, and your difficulties revolve around money. And it’s also artificial to avoid the subject because so much of the Bible is about money. The Bible says there can be no significant spiritual growth unless you put your money and your attitude toward it into God’s hands. And 2 Corinthians 9 shows us that it’s the mark of a real Christian to be radically generous. This passage teaches us 1) the impact of that generosity, 2) the motivation for that generosity, and 3) the measure of that generosity. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 10, 1991. 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. 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. Why does the Bible talk about money so much? How we think about and use our money is one of the most common subjects throughout Scripture. And the Bible tells us something striking. You cannot experience deep spiritual growth without putting your money and your attitude toward it in God's hands. Listen as Tim Keller shows us why generosity is not optional for Christians, but a vital mark of authentic faith. I've been bringing your gospel of John to church for the last year and a half.

You'll have to look over into somebody else if you, somebody else's Bible. I'm going to read to you from 2 Corinthians chapter 9. I'll explain why they detour in a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 through 15. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, his second one, at least the second one we have, verses 6 to 15. And Paul says, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,

and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Now, he who supplies seed in the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people, but also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience,

that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity and sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. This is God's word. Now, one of the things you can always expect near the end of the year is you've got a lot of special features.

You've got Christmas coming, an Advent, you've got Thanksgiving. And therefore, we're going to move back and forth, and each week you may get a John sermon, you may not. But we'll finish John up this spring. Now, here's what I'd like to talk about today. I'd like to talk about money. One of the very first things that I learned when I came to New York and figuring out where people were at,

I found out that New Yorkers get extremely nervous when ministers talk about money. And part of the reason, partly because of that, research that I did, I've stayed away from the subject. And one of the good things is that many people like about the church is that there don't seem to be lots of appeals and canvases and things like that. But there's an imbalance that could happen, and here's why I have to make sure that today I talk about money. It's coming up on Thanksgiving, and we're presenting a budget today to the congregation. It's a traditional time to talk about money in a congregation. Why should I do it?

Why should we do it? For this reason. It's artificial, very artificial, to avoid the subject when, A, so many of your problems, I know I listen to them, so many of your worries, so many of your difficulties, so many of the complexities of your life revolve around money.

And then secondly, it's artificial because so much of the Bible is about money. The Gospel of Luke is almost completely, about money if you read it through and see how often it's mentioned. And therefore, it's very artificial to stay away from something that's so central to, in many cases, it's the thing that's really right now been worrying more than anything else. So we obviously can't, in the name of being careful and sensitive to a culture that is very distrustful of organized religion, especially when it comes to money that we would avoid the subject, because you need to hear

And the Bible says this, there can be no significant spiritual growth unless you put your money and your attitude toward it into God's hands. There can be no significant growth, no significant spiritual growth in your life unless you put your money and what you think about your money into God's hands. Because it's just too big and too pivotal an issue. If you would go to a doctor and you go because of a general need to improve your health, if you went into a doctor and said, doctor, I am just not healthy. I'm always tired and I'm constantly getting sick. Can you help me?

What would the doctor say? She would look at you and she would say, listen, you're going to have to tell me everything because I can't just give you a physical checkup. You're going to have to tell me how you're sleeping. How well you sleep? How many hours you sleep? You have to tell me what you're eating and how much you're eating. You need to tell me about your work. How many hours are you working?

How satisfying is your work to you? You have to tell me about personal stresses may be happening in your life. You've got to tell me everything. And if you looked at her and said, no, wait a minute. You're a doctor. You stick to the physical. I don't want to talk to you about my personal stresses. And I don't want to talk to you about the personal problems I have at work.

That's not your department. You help me with my health. what would she say? She'd say, I'm sorry. The answer is, I'm sorry, they're all connected. You can't break your life into departments. Maybe the reason that you're always getting sick is because there's some kind of psychological strain on you. And the physiological effects are real. They're not psychosomatic, but they're being caused by something. You might need counseling as well as my treatment, and therefore, you've got to tell me everything. Of course, that's what the doctor's going to say. And in the same way, God says,

you come to me because you want meaning because you want renewal because you want strength because you want forgiveness you want me in your life then you've got to let me talk to you about your money you see if you want I want God in my life

but I don't want anybody talking to me about what God says about money that's impossible and just like the doctor will kick you out after a while and say I'm sorry what you want is impossible you want me to deal with your health but you won't tell me everything and you won't see that you're an interconnected whole.

In the same way, God says, unless you're willing to talk to me about your money, unless you're willing to put your money and your attitude toward your money in my hands as well, we can't do business. Therefore, we have to take a look at the passages, and here's a passage. I mean, you see the practical implications of that?

That's a powerful argument. And it makes so much sense. Now, the scripture says, it gives a lot of places where it gives you principles for what it means to put your, money in God's hands. What does that mean, you say? What does the Bible say our attitude has to be? Well, there's a number of passages, but we're going to look at this one. And what this passage will tell us about is that it's the mark of real Christians to be radically generous. Did you notice

as we read through there how often? In many verses, the word generosity, generosity, generosity comes up. Radical generosity, remarkable generosity. That's the mark of a Christian. Now, I'd like to show you that this scripture teaches us about the impact of that generosity, what the effects are, then secondly, the motivation for that generosity, where does it come from internally? And then lastly, the measure of that generosity, how do you know that you're generous or not? How much? You know, bottom line, New York, right? So the impact of that generosity, the motivation for that generosity, and the measure of that generosity.

Let's run through those three things, because they're all here. Now, first of all, let's see, I'm going to actually, you know, you can easily turn this around and put the impact last, but I want to put it first, because I want you to see the importance of radical Christian generosity for the world. Paul says, now you, pardon me, have to keep this in context. Paul in 2 Corinthians is raising money for famine relief. There's hints of it in the passage I read you, but you see it over in 2 Corinthians 8. there's been a famine in Jerusalem. There is many people there who are in need, and Paul is going to Asia Minor and to the churches in that area, and he is raising money. He's asking for money, for the Christians there to give money to do famine relief in Jerusalem. And therefore, if you look carefully, you'll see that Paul is saying the impact of this generosity will be twofold.

Not only will there be people who are physically fed, but secondly, we see, for example, in verse 13, radical generosity will also lead people to praise God. See, there's a twofold impact to radical generosity. Let me show you what that means and then how radical generosity brings it about. Twofold. Not only does it feed people, but it also leads them to praise God. You see, you are two parts. you are body and soul or body and spirit.

You can put it either way. There's an immaterial part to you and a material part to you. The physiologist will tell you that you are a bag of chemicals. But if somebody tells you you're only a bag of chemicals, you'll punch them in those. Why? Because you know you're more than just chemicals. You know that. Frankly, if you're not more than just chemicals,

then you have the right to treat a human being the way you would treat a real bag of chemicals. And the fact that we don't treat human beings the way we treat other bags of chemicals shows implicitly we believe there's a material and an immaterial part. There's more to us than meets the eye or the microscope. There's two parts to you. Now, there's many ways to help people. And churches have always helped the body. Churches have always fed people. They've always built hospitals. They've always built hospitals. They have always worked with the elderly and the disadvantages. And any city in this country where churches stop doing that, you know there'd be an immediately negative impact on the quality of life in those cities.

So obviously the church has always dealt with the body, but the church, unlike any other institution, religious institutions, can deal with both the body, the material and the immaterial. Because the religious institutions not only can do the feeding and the medical and so on, but they can also give you meaning in life, tell you what the purpose of things is, without which, if you don't have that, all the dealing with the body and the physical and material really is kind of meaningless. For example, what can botanists tell you about a tomato?

They can tell you a lot of thing about tomato. They can tell you a lot more than I know about tomatoes. There's only one thing they can't tell you, and that's the most important thing. They can tell you everything about the tomato except why. Why the tomato? They can't tell you about that. Do you see why that's important, though? Look, is this tomato a beautiful work of creation, or is it, and please excuse me,

is it a beautiful fruit or is just a damned tomato? It depends on the bigger question. See, is this thing, when you look at it, do you see something that's full of beauty and order and symmetry, a wonder of creation, a joy? or do you see it as something just to squash or throw at somebody? It depends on whether you believe there's any meaning in life at all. The point is, unless you see the big issues, we talk about what will help people.

Friends, if people don't know why they are living, if people don't know what the purpose of things is, if people don't know how you know what's right and wrong, if people don't know who they are in the universe, If they don't have both the big picture, the big issues, if they're not dealt with spiritually as well as physically, they're not being dealt with. One of the most important and interesting things that's happening in the world today is what's happening religiously in Latin America. Recently, there have been two major studies written by sociologists, not writing from a Christian point of view, not published by Christian houses of publication, but two sociologists,

Two sociologists have written books on the fact that in Latin America, the poor, are turning to traditional Protestant Christianity in incredible numbers. In Brazil, 500,000 people a year are joining these churches. Guatemala is 30% now evangelical Protestant. Now, let me tell you what I mean by traditional Protestant. I mean this. That is traditional Christianity without the modern bias against the supernatural. Up until 50 years ago, this is what all Christians believed, and still, traditional Christians

believe this. They believe in the supernatural. The modern mind has faith that there is no supernatural, but that can't be proven. It's a bias. It's not objective. It's a faith assumption. Traditional Christians have always believed that the Bible is God's revelation. It's a miracle. It's God's word. That there is such a thing as a new birth, that Christ can come on in and change you from the inside, that he can live with you and give you power, that the kingdom of God can move into our lives and give us power to change lives and social structures. And those are the kind of churches that the poor are flooding into in Latin America. Lots of people have been trying to help the poor in Latin America in all kinds of very important ways, extremely important

ways, community development and hunger relief and so on. But the poor themselves, the kind of help the poor are getting themselves is they're flooding into these churches. You know why? These two sociologists have written these two different books independently of each other, and they say that classic Christianity is radically empowering. What the poor realize when they get a hold of the gospel is that whether you're high or low socially, we're all sinners. And then secondly, no matter who you are socially, in Christ, every human being has equal dignity before the Father. See, that's radically empowering. It's radically democratizing. That's what they say, actually, in the books. And the fact that through Christianity, they got power for the

present and hope for the future means they're able to face their lives. And where there are whole villages that are coming to Christ, what happens is families come together and the economic conditions change. Because you see, these people are having the big issue addressed. Not simply, that what the church can do is not simply feed people, but it can lead them to praise God. And the fact is, unless you've got something to praise, you've got no meaning in your life. And a full stomach is not enough. Don't you see, don't you see, you say, what does the world need? What does the world need?

Paul was in the Roman world. and the old religions and philosophies of that ancient world were disintegrating because they couldn't bear the freight of people's real meaning needs. The church came in, it could do it all. It could feed people, and it could lead them to praise God. And it ran through the Roman Empire like lightning. You see how it changed things. It changed things radically.

And here's how it changed things. It changed things through radical generosity. A lot of people say, well, it's fascinating. How did Christianity actually move through the Roman Empire and change it the way it's moving through cultures today? Wherever the church spreads in New Testament

purity, it changes everything. It addresses both the body and the soul, both the material and the immaterial, and only religious institutions can do that. And the only ones they can actually do it, they have to multiply. There is nothing, for example, it would be nothing better for New York City

than in the next 10 years to have 2,000 new churches planted, the way that's the rate that things are being planted in parts of Latin America and parts of Korea. There is nothing that could possibly change people holistically, completely, you see, physically and spiritually, than a church. There's nothing more important to spread than that. Now, how does it happen? It spreads through radical generosity.

Listen, when the church becomes what it ought to be, there's a magnetism and an attractiveness about people's lives, in the church that attracts people, and radical generosity is a key. 20 or 30 years after the last apostle died, after John the Apostle died, there was a, we don't know who wrote this, but we have a very, very ancient Christian document, and it's called the Episcible to Diognitus. Diognitus was a non-Christian, and somebody wrote him a letter saying, trying to explain Christianity, and this is what it says, and it's very interesting.

It says, let me tell you why Christianity. spreading so fast. Christians busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. Listen, real carefully. They live in their own native lands, but they live as aliens, for every foreign country is to them as their native land, and every native land is as their foreign country. They marry and have children, but they do not kill unwanted babies. They are poor, oh, pardon me, they share their table with everyone, but they don't share their bed with everyone. They love everyone, but are persecuted by all. They are poor and make many rich.

They are short of everything and yet have plenty of everything. They are treated outrageously but behave respectfully. They are mocked and blessed in return. When they do good, they are attacked. When they are attacked, they rejoice as if being given new life. Now look and see for a moment four qualities that these Christians had that everyone marveled at.

The first one was the complete absence of race, It says their foreign countries were as their native lands, and their native lands were as their foreign countries. See what that means? I have to run through these more briefly. You see, the Christians were Jews and Africans and Greeks and Romans, but they were Christians first, and they were Greeks and Jews and Romans and Africans second. What Christianity does is it gives you a higher authority than your cultural tradition, and it gives you a higher loyalty than your race. It relativizes your relationship to your own culture so that you can critique it. And it says your Christians could

appreciate other people's cultures and they could be critical of their own. They no longer took their identity from who they were racially. And it cut racism down at the root. Say their native lands were as their foreign lands and their foreign lands were as native lands. So the absence of racism. Secondly, a high, high view of life, it says they do not kill the unwanted. Back then, it was normal that when you had a female child, to throw it in the river. And parents had the right to do that. Slaves also were expendable. You could kill a slave if you wanted to. Christians, though, saw every life, no matter how unwanted or expendable to be absolutely inviolate, infinitely precious, that view of life. Thirdly, they had an unusual view of sex. The third reason that people looked

at them as so strange was because it says they share their table with all, but they don't share their As 2025 comes to a close, it should come as no surprise that we have great hope for the year ahead. Because of what God is doing to bring people to faith and to renew Christians through the gospel teaching and resources you help us provide on our podcast, YouTube channel, radio broadcast, quarterly journal, and website, and soon through our translation project. We're grateful that so many of you are partnering with us to spread the message of Christ's love. Thank you. God continues to provide opportunities for us to expand the ways we share the gospel.

In 2026, we anticipate adding new international radio broadcast and additional online ministry partnerships, publishing new books, and beginning to make Dr. Keller's sermons available in other languages. So as we close out the year, we invite you to prayerfully consider making a year-end gift to gospel in life. The year-end gifts we receive are a vital part of how we will prepare for ministry in 2026. Your support allows us to make a year-end gift to gospel in life. Your support to share the story of the gospel with people in over 200 countries, and we are deeply grateful for your participation in this mission. To make a year-end gift, visit gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. And please pray that we would steward your gifts

well and that through the ministry of gospel and life, many new people will find the hope and joy of knowing Christ as Savior. Thank you for partnering with us to share the love of Christ with a world that needs him because the gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's message. You see, the pagan understanding of sex was that it was like an appetite. You know, if you got hungry, you ate, and if you felt sexy, you had sex. Christians came along with an absolutely radical sex ethic, and what they said is sex is God's appointed way to say to another human being, I belong completely and exclusively

and permanently to you, and it must not be used, sex must not be used to say anything else to someone. Therefore, sex was a celebration of complete, exclusive, and permanent commitment. What was so interesting was every single one of the early Christians had been raised in the pagan sex ethic, and when they became Christians and they realized the new Christian sex ethic, they felt liberated. What's ironic is, in most cases, you were raised in the Christian sex ethic and we're told that it's the pagan one that's liberating. And how did you find it? You know, when Christians are raised in the pagan one,

they get into Christian, the Christian sex ethic, they find intimacy, they find healing, they find security. When you get up, when you come up in the Christian sex ethic and you get rid of it for the pagan, how liberated are you? How excited are you? How happy are you? You see, the Christian sex ethic ran through the Roman Empire like lightning. It was so unique. When people tried it, they said, this is it.

But fourthly, these early Christians were radically generous. It says they share their table with everyone. Though poor, they make many rich. And though they have nothing, they're short of everything, they have plenty of everything. And what that's saying is these early Christians were marked by eye-popping generosity. They were radically generous. People couldn't believe how quick they were to give their money away to people. And not only that, they changed their attitude toward their simpler life.

now that they had as a result. It says, though short of everything, they had plenty of everything. What does that mean? It means that they were short of things because they were so generous, and yet they were happy with what they had. Why, how could the Roman Empire, with its slavery and its infanticide, and its corruption

and its decadence and its immorality, you saw I, Claudius, along with me, how did a world like that turn Christian within a couple hundred years? How could Christianity have to spread the way did. The answer is nobody could match the beauty of the lives of these Christians. Their lifestyle was gorgeous. Their lifestyle was startling. A lack of racism, a high regard for human life, a sex ethic of

purity and commitment. And lastly, radical generosity. People looked at Christians and said, what has happened inside of them to make them so quick to give their money away? They've never seen anything like it. Nobody can figure it out. something radical must have happened on the inside, and that's true. Now let's look at what that is. It's the motivation. But before we do, just for a second, let me point this out. How do people look at you? How do people look at us? Is the gospel spreading like lightning through New York because people look at folks that come here and say, man, do they say the same things about us as they used to say about

the early Christians in their money? Do they say when you get near Christians, you get showered with their time, with their funds, and with their open homes. They just give you help in the most practical way possible. They are so generous. Does anybody say that about you? Are you unusually generous? Are you known for your generosity? If not, you're not like they were. And maybe it's because you don't have the same thing operating inside that was operating inside of them. What was operating inside of them? You know what their motivation was? It's right there in verse 13 again. It says, men will be, praise God, for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel.

Something had happened inside of them. See, a motivation is a motor. Something that drives you. What is it that is so unique in Christians that it leads them to a generosity that other people can't account for? Now, I've already gotten by the fact that that radical generosity has got to be there. now we look and see why there are two motives operating in a Christian

that makes them different than other people and changes their attitude toward their wealth and their possessions listen the first one is creation and the second one is redemption the first motivation is this it says for example it says God is able to make all grace abound to you

he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food can also supply an increase your store of seed. Now what he's saying is this. The reason you need to give away your wealth is because all the wealth you got is from God anyway. I know the advertisements say spend this on yourself because you've worked hard for it and you owe it to yourself. Have you ever noticed how many commercials basically say that? You owe it to yourself because you've earned it. What God says is you've earned it with what? You've earned it breathing the air that I've given you free with the mind that I gave you free

with the connections that I gave you free all these things are for me the fact that you're born today instead of 1,200 years ago in the mountains of Tibet that's from me everything you've got as a result of my goodness to you

every single bit of it and I ask you now to share it you see a Christian has a completely different attitude toward their possessions because they know it's all from God parents are always irked about this in children

you've got to teach this to children you buy the children a $50 Nintendo game and everybody says Daddy thank you then you sit down and after I've been playing for an hour you sit down and say hey can I play a game no why it's mine you gave it to me

you buy the kid a candy bar and you say could I just have a piece no it's mine And you look at them and you say, you're kidding, right? You're kidding. It's yours. I know it's yours. I give it to you.

Yeah, it's yours. I'm not taking it back, but come on. Suppose somebody gave you a house. In the Burbs, $400,000 house. They said there's only one thing. Look how big it. It's got in all these rooms. I would like to have one.

room to live in. But I'll give you everything else. The whole house is yours. I'll have a separate. I won't bother you too much. I just would like part of it. What do you say? Forget it. If you give it to me, it's all mine. Now, you know, common sense would tell you that if the only reason you have any joy and comfort in that house is because of the generosity, completely, the generosity of this one person, if that person says, but I would like you to share, oh, say, 10% of the house with me, common sense says that you ought to know. that that's perfectly a reasonable request. Common sense says the little kid should know it too, but he doesn't. You're kidding, right? And God comes to you in the scripture, and if he would say,

if he would say, I've given you everything that you have. But what if, how about sharing with me, oh, say 10% of it for the work of the church, for the needs of the poor, and for the needs of people around you, just 10%. I've given you everything. I would just like you to share 10% with me, and you say, what? It's mine. And he says to you, you're kidding, right? You're kidding. First Corinthians 4-7 says, what do you have that is not a gift? And therefore, how dare you treat it as if it's anything but a gift? Christians understand that. Even though Christians also know the natural heart says, like the heart of a little child, says it's mine. So creation is the first motivation, but redemption is the second one.

It says here that it's a response to the gospel. Now, what is the gospel? You know, it says, for example, in chapter 8, I am not commanding you to give, Paul says, but I know that you know the grace of the gospel. Now think about this for a minute. It even says in verse 13, you proved yourselves through this gift. Paul is actually saying

the way you know that you have actually experienced the grace of God is if you're radically generous and would not Paul is actually saying if you need to be commanded to give you have never experienced the grace of God if on the other hand

you want to give generously radically if your attitude toward your possessions has been mightily changed that is the only proof you've got actually, one of the few purists you have, that you really have experienced the grace of God. Luther says that a Christian is somebody who every day gets up and looks at God and says, Jesus and says, Lord, you are my goodness and I'm your punishment. You took everything I deserve, and now I get everything you deserved.

Luther says every day a Christian is somebody who gets up and says, I'm rich. I am rich. I've been adopted into the family. I've been accepted in the beloved. I have a guarantee to rule and reign forever. I've got His holy power living in me that will inevitably overwhelm all my flaws, all my weaknesses, all my sadnesses.

A Christian is somebody who feels absolutely rich and therefore turns around and says, has a completely different attitude toward your possessions. This is an illustration that some of you heard. I got it from Charles Spurge, and there's no better illustration than this. Charles Spurge and the old Baptist, this preacher used to say, what if you knew you were dying of something and I had a medicine

that could cure you for sure? And you said, I want to buy that medicine. And you said, well, if you go to the distributor, it's extremely expensive and you might have to lose your home and you might have to lose your record collection. You might have to lose everything in order to buy it. What would you say? He would say, what good is my home if I don't have that? what good is my record collection if I don't have that this thing is so precious this medicine is so precious that all these other things that always were important to me that seemed very expensive to me look cheap the preciousness of that medicine has made everything else in my life expendable

the Bible says to you who believe Jesus Christ is precious to you who know what he's done for you your attitude toward every everything else is this. You say, look at what I have. Everything else is expendable. Everything else in my life is eternally and utterly expendable. You know you're in love with somebody when you want to give them everything. You know, I know there's an awful lot of efforts being made on the part of people who are nervous. And so before they get married, they sign a little agreement saying, if we get a divorce, you don't get this and you don't get that. And maybe in some cases that, I don't know if that's wise or not, but I know that's not the language of the heart

in love. Because when you're in a warm, passionate embrace, you know what you want to say? You say, I am yours and everything I have is yours. Here's how you know whether you've got a love relationship based on an experience of the grace of Christ or whether you've got a formal, legalistic, moralistic relationship with God, thinking that because you've done your best, He owes you. See, a person who's a real Christian says, I owe you everything. Everything I have is yours. My attitude toward every bit of my possessions has been changed.

A person who's a moralist says, God owes me, I've worked pretty hard. I've worked hard. I've been a good person. You see the difference? And that's the reason why Paul can go so far and say, you've been, you've proved yourself. You prove yourself with radical generosity. Do you understand that?

And here, just before we finish, there's probably people in this room who don't know where they stand with Jesus. They don't know what your relationship is. I want you to know that one of the great glories of the church and one of the great comforts in my life is to know that every week there's a significant number of people here like that. Jesus wants you here.

Jesus says, I'm a physician, and it's not the well who I need. I need the sick. It's not the people who are spiritually solid that I want to talk to. It's the people who are confused and who don't know what they believe. He wants to see you here. He's a physician. But here's how he can help you diagnose yourself.

The way you can diagnose yourself is, do you find radical generosity making sense? See, if he's the God he claimed to be, and if he has given himself to you, and if he was torn on the tree to pay your debt and now he lives spiritually in you and if he's not just your helper but your savior somebody who did everything for you he's your goodness you're his punishment you see that that will change your attitude toward everything else when you see what he's done for you it changes your attitude toward all your possessions has that happened to you yet if not you haven't grasped the grace of god so keep on move toward that if the things that i'm

saying now, or about to say here in conclusion, make no sense to you. It's because don't worry about money for the time being. It's your relationship with him. It's got to be straight. If your relationship with him is straight, if it gets straight, there's no problem in being radically generous. If you find a lot of trouble with it, then you haven't got it straight. Okay, last thing. A lot of people say, and I'll just mention this, a lot of people say, well, how much are you talking about. I don't know if I'm radically generous or not. Let's be bottom line about this. The answer is right there in verse 13, in accord with the gospel. You see, the gospel comes, in the Old Testament, all believers are required to give one-tenth of their income to God, to the poor, to, in other

percent away, not for you, for other people. When you come to the New Testament, there's no place where the tithe is directly commanded. And so everybody starts to go, until you're realize, what it's saying is, think of the gospel. Are people in the New Testament who know Christ more blessed or less blessed than people in the Old Testament? Are you more indebted to God or less indebted to God? And the only inescapable conclusion is the Bible gives you a pragmatic way to understand whether or not you are a sinner saved by grace. If when you look at 10% and you realize the Bible sees that as a minimum amount, a minimum rule of thumb for how much you should be giving away? A person who's a moralist or a legalist will say that's ridiculous, but a person who's

been touched by the grace of God who owes everything to Christ, what you may say is I'm strapped, I can't do it, I'm too much in debt, I've got obligations, I'm in trouble, I can't make it, but you would never say that's unreasonable, never. You've got a pragmatic way to find out whether you're a legalist or a real Christian today. If 10% is unreasonable, reasonable to the one who's given you everything? You don't know them yet. If it's reasonable, but you don't know how you're going to get there, that's different. That's different. See, some of you can get there. Some of you say, I can't afford 10%. The answer is, if you suddenly had a 10% reduction in your income, what would you do? You'd make do, and you'd be grumpy

and unhappy. Make do now. Only instead of the unhappiness, of not knowing you, feeling you don't have it, make do now, but take that money with the joy of knowing that now you're a philanthropist for the first, you never thought you could afford it. The fact is you say, if I had a 10% reduction in income, I could make do. It would be painful. You can make do with the joy of knowing suddenly that your radical generosity can change the world and have the impact we've been talking about. And there's a lot of you who just can't get there because it'll take you time, because you are boxed in, because you're learning about radical generosity. Maybe today for the first time, and you say, boy, it's going to be a while before I could get there because of the obligations I've got.

All right, then get in that direction. Move that way. Say, Lord, I want to get there. Give to the point where you get scared and make a plan and be gutsy and move toward that, and it may take you a while, but get there. in Malachi 3 Jesus God says Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse

Prove me Put me to the test He says And I will pour down into your heart Blessings that you cannot imagine That's Malachi 3 He says bring the full tithe into the storehouse Put me the test whether I do not bring down a blessing into your heart

If you begin to give the way God says he actually says, put me to the test, dare to give in the proportions I'm talking about, dare and I promise you I'll put something in your hand. Now the blessing, we don't know what that blessing is. Is it mean more money? Sometimes it does. Blessing means something much more than that. In some of your cases, you won't start to worry. You won't stop worrying about money until you start to give like this. The first blessing that you'll get from radical generosity is when you start to give in these proportions, and you find that God is supporting you, the way it says in this text, you'll stop worrying about money for the first time in your lives. Some of you are eaten up

with worry, and until you begin to obey this text, you'll never get to the security. God says, I want to put blessings in your hands, but I can't put it into a clenched fist. Your fists are tight, clenched around your possessions, afraid you're going to lose them. Open your hand up. I can't put my blessing into a tight fist. Let go of your things, and where do you see what I put into your hands? Look what happened when Jesus opened his hand. Look what happened when my son let go of his wealth. Way do you see what I put down into your heart and into your hand when you finally let go.

Let go. Come, change the world. Come, change your life. Open your hand. Let's pray. My father, our attitude toward money, so important. so critical. We pray, Father, today,

not that necessarily people in this room will start to be generous even to this church. Oh, Lord, if we all begin to obey this text, we will stop worrying about money, we'll start to see all kinds of blessings in our community and in our church everywhere. Everybody will be taken care of. I pray instead that everyone in this room will see

that until they begin to stop worrying, begin to start trusting the one who gave them everything to start with, to begin to become radically generous, the world is not a safe place to be, and they themselves will find that they do not have the blessing that you have promised. Father, I pray that everyone in this room will see that because of what Jesus did, they can afford to be generous in the proportions that you have outlined in your word. Help us to see that blessing will come from that. help us to understand that we pray this now in Jesus' name amen

thanks for listening to today's teaching it's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and to share it with others for more biblical resources from Tim Keller visit gospelonlife.com there you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal when you do you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelonlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1991. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life

podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. You know,