Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Gifts of the Spirit

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

I’ve seen the pendulum in the church swing to extreme places over spiritual gifts—sometimes giving obsessive focus to them, and sometimes ignoring them. There’s nothing more practical for helping us avoid extremes and understand what a Christian church should actually look like than to embrace what the Bible gives us here, a theology of spiritual gifts. Let’s ask three questions of this text: 1) what are spiritual gifts, 2) what are the practical implications for church life, and 3) how can we rightly use spiritual gifts? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 29, 2010. Series: The Holy Spirit. Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. Who is the Holy Spirit? And why is the Spirit's work so vital to the Christian life? The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit is not just a vague force, but a person who works in the lives of Christians in profound ways. Today, Tim Keller is exploring how the Spirit calls us to faith, unites us together, equips us with gifts, and shapes us to be more like Christ.

Our scripture reading this morning is from Ephesians, Chapter 4, verses 7 through 16. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. What does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith

and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will, in all things grow up into Him, who is the head that is Christ.

From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. This is the word of the Lord. Now in our series on the Holy Spirit, we come to the subject of what the Bible calls the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And, you know, coming up on a good 40 years, really, in Christian ministry, I know you wouldn't know to look at me. But coming up on 40 years, I've seen the pendulum in the church swing in such extreme places over the subject of spiritual gifts, from excessive, obsessive, obsessive focus on them to ignoring them. And I think we're going to see that there's nothing

more practical for helping us understand what a Christian church should actually look like concretely on the ground than to embrace what the Bible gives us here, a theology of spiritual gifts. So if we can avoid the extremes, we're going to learn a lot about what we should look like. If this is your church, what this church should look like. If you've come from some other church, what your church there should look like. Let's ask three questions of the text. What are spiritual gifts? Then what are the practical implications of the the theology of spiritual gifts? What are the implications for church life? And then thirdly, how can we rightly use spiritual gifts? Okay? First, what are they? Let me give you a definition.

Drawn from years of thinking about what the Bible says about it. The definition is spiritual gifts are differing abilities given by Holy Spirit to each believer to meet needs in such a way that it creates a community of people who are growing into the fullness of the character of Jesus Christ. Let me break that down into three parts for you. First of all, spiritual gifts are abilities to meet needs. There are five lists of spiritual gifts in the Bible.

There's actually one in Romans 12. There's two in 1st Corinthians 12. There's this one here in Ephesians 4. There's one in 1st Peter, 4. and every one of the lists is really quite different. And it's pretty clear that each one is not exhaustive, it's illustrative, and even if you put them all together, we don't have all the gifts listed. But if you read them all, you'll see there are clusters of gifts. Some gifts are the ability to communicate truth, like evangelism teaching.

Some gifts are the ability to bear burdens. So you have gifts of encouragement and of mercy and of service. and of helps of assistance. And some gifts are gifts to give direction. So you have leadership and administration and wisdom, which is a counseling gift, a way of giving an individual direction. But now look, there is no human need,

spiritual, physical, psychological, relational, that doesn't have some spiritual gift that can address it. Spiritual gifts are the ability to address those kinds of needs. See, some spiritual gifts heal us when we're wounded or some spiritual gifts encourage us where we're downcast some spiritual gifts challenge us when we're lagging or you know correct us when we're going astray or love us when we're being rejected or or just inform us where we're ignorant there is no human need that doesn't have some spiritual gift that can address it so spiritual gifts are the abilities to address needs

Secondly, these spiritual gifts are different and yet given to every believer. See, it says to each, Christ has given a portion of the Spirit's power to meet needs. In spite of the fact that we're all one fundamentally in Christ, spiritual gifts create enormous diversity. Not only, we're going to see this as we go along, not only do spiritual gifts make Christians differ a lot from person to person in what they see and what they resonate to and how they look at the world. Not only are individual Christians incredibly different, but gifts make individuals make churches different from each other. Churches are very different from other churches

because the gift mixes that are in those churches can be very, very different than the gift mix of a church right across the street. And as a result, it's one of the reasons why you have this amazing diversity in the Christian church. It's really one of the reasons why people are saying, why isn't the Christian church more, why is it so different? Why is it so, why there's so many denominations, so many churches, why, why, one of the reasons is this. Another reason is sin, but one of the reasons is, one of the reasons is this. But even though it makes us different, every believer does not say to some believers, to super believers, to certain believers, you get spiritual gifts. Everyone. When it says to each one of us, who's us, Christians, Paul's not just

saying us ministers or something like that, to each. So everybody gets a portion. Jesus has all the ministry abilities to communicate truth, to bear burdens, to give direction. He has all. We get a portion of his ministry ability to meet needs, but everyone gets one, and only a portion. Now, thirdly, and this is actually the most important thing I'm going to press two or three times here today. What is the goal of spiritual gifts? What is the goal of ministry? You know, Paul's sentences are very long, and they're even longer than they appear in the English, because the English translators usually break his sentences into several sentences to make it a little bit clearer. And sometimes it's not that easy to tell. What is the final goal of all this? You have, everybody's getting a gift,

and then you've got some of these more prominent gifts like pastors, teachers, evangelist, prophets. and then to do what, to equip people for the work of service so everybody's doing their job. But what is the ultimate goal? To build up the body until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Now that's a mouthful, but here's the purpose of all ministry. Ministry in the church, exercising a spiritual gift is not there just to make people happy in some general way. First of all, it's to form us into a body. Spiritual gifts make us a body.

I often have loved to say there's a difference between an aggregation and a congregation. An aggregation is like a bag of marbles. There they are, you know, a thousand marbles in a bag. And they're all next to each other, but they're slipping and sliding, and they're not in any particular pattern. They have no particular relationship with each other. They're just all in the same bag. and there are churches that are aggregations, but a congregation is a body because every gift

makes you to differ from the other gifts, and yet your gift is absolutely necessary in the church. And therefore, the Holy Spirit makes us a body, so you have head and you have hands and your feet and you have elbows, that's the image, but it means that everyone is not only different, unlike the marbles, but we are all intimately related to each other. So the Holy Spirit, especially spiritual gifts, make us a body. but the whole purpose of all this ministry is to create Christ-likeness in one another. You don't just encourage in general, you don't just teach in general, you don't just help in general.

Everything, when spiritual gifts are exercised rightly, the result in the recipient of the ministry is growing Christ-likeness, growing into the likeness of Jesus. You know what that is? H.J. Cadbury was a professor. of theology and Bible at Harvard from the 1930s to the 1950s, and he loved getting undergraduate students who had never read the Bible, which of course was quite a lot, even then. And he loved having, they'd all heard of Jesus, but just to have them read about Jesus, read the accounts of what he was like, what he said, what he did, and just get what he called their virgin reaction.

And they were always shocked. One of his students wrote this. This is just, just, you You read about Jesus, who is he? What is he? Despite being absolutely approachable, this student wrote, Jesus, despite being absolutely approachable to the weakest and most broken people, he is completely fearless before the proud and the corrupt. Despite being profoundly human and becoming weary and lonely and move to joy and love and anger, we never see him moody, we never see him inconsistent. He is tender without being weak, strong without being harsh, humble without the slightest lack of confidence. He has conviction without intolerance, enthusiasm without fanaticism,

holiness without Phariseeism, passion without prejudice. This man alone never made a false step, never struck a jarring note. This is life at its highest. And that is what spiritual gifts are supposed to produce. That's the point. And when spiritual gifts are being used in the congregation, that's what results in the lives of the people. and that is why just the last thing I want to say about what spiritual gifts are the essence of a spiritual gift is the blessing of God not the form of the action

and here's what I mean by that we live I'll get back to this too we live in New York City where what really matters is I don't care about your accent they tell you here I don't care where you're from I don't even care how you dress what you look like can you produce Are you good enough? And so there's enormous emphasis on being talented and being gifted and being able to do things. And what we have to recognize here is the point of the spiritual gift is not the technical perfection of this skill. It's whether or not it produces Christ's likeness in people. It's the blessing of God, not the form of the action that really makes a spiritual gift a spiritual gift. This is the reason why you will know.

let me give you two examples. There are preachers whose sermons aren't all that good if you analyze them and yet always give you life-changing experiences of God. Why? Because it's not the form of the action.

It's the blessing of God. It's the reason why there are spiritual leaders who do a great job. They get people together and they move people out and they get things done and people follow them even though they don't do

any of the things they tell you at the Harvard MBA school you should do. Why? I am not saying, if I'm training a preacher I'm going to talk about technical. I'm going to talk about, yeah, here's how you outline so people don't lose your train, you know, what you're trying to say.

But in the end, what makes a spiritual gift a spiritual gift is not the technical excellence of what you're doing. It's whether or not God's blessing it. And as we seek to recognize gifts in ourselves and the people around us, especially in a place like New York, where technique is so important, overly important, let's remember that. So that is what it is.

spiritual gifts are differing abilities given by the Holy Spirit to each believer to meet needs but in such a way that it creates Christ-likeness in a community of people. Secondly, now, if that's true, there's your theology. What are some of the practical implications of that? What's that going to do? What kind of church does that create? Okay? Let me give you four.

Four practical implications. The first one is, it means there will not be any passive unemployed Christians in a church. If this theology is embraced, there will not be any passive unemployed people in the church. I want you for a minute just to think about the implications of this theology. There's a place in Ephesians 2, where verse 10, where it says, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

you have been crafted and your unique abilities mean that there are certain great things that God wants you to do or put it this way take your gifts which will be everybody's gifts are different and the fact that your gender your ethnicity your experience in life you put all those things together and what this means there are some people in this world that need to be reached and you are the best person in the world to reach them Because of who you are. There are some deeds that need to be done, that God wants to be done in this world. And because of who you are, you are the very best person to do them.

To understand your gifts and to exercise your gifts is to find your meaning in life, your mission in life. But we have trouble embracing these in churches, and I'll give you two different ways. We have trouble embracing the theology in two different ways. In small churches, here's the problem. in small churches there's there's so much to be done and only a few people to do it and very often in small churches you find people doing a lot of things that they're just not gifted to do and as a result they're overworked and burned out and very often they're not getting things done very well because they're not gifted to do it and that's partly because very often small churches kind of

ignore the theology of spiritual gifts but i want you to know it's in us big churches a big church like Redeemer that has a bigger problem than the small churches. And here's the reason why. Spiritual gifts are output. Ministry is output. Ministry is spending yourself, giving yourself, serving, doing for other people. Many, many, many, many, many people come to a large church like Redeemer because they're not going to be asked to do anything. You come because I can get input, lots of input, high quality input, and nobody's going to ask me of output, especially if you are careful where you sit. But if you come to a church and get mainly input and virtually no output, meaning you are not

making yourself accountable, getting involved in other people's lives, speaking the truth and love into their lives, using your unique gifts in order to see them build into Christ-likeness. See, if you're coming and doing input and you're not doing output, that is you're coming and you're not really doing anything else but attending, you are violating the will of the Holy Spirit for your life. Okay. To each is given a gift. You are God's workmanship. There are certain things that you and you alone can do. And if you and God's providence are here, then the rest of us need you. Or you wouldn't be here. God doesn't waste people. He doesn't waste assets like the rest of us do. And therefore, it's absolutely crucial if we embrace the theology of the spiritual gifts, that there be no unemployed or passive Christians. That's the first implication. Second implication. It also means we ought to expect, and I already kind of hinted at this, we ought to expect a certain amount of contention and conflict in the church because of

spiritual gifts. We need to expect it to a certain degree. With Christmas just around the corner, we are inviting people to sign up for our Advent devotional series, which you can receive daily from November 30th to December 24th. The daily meditations will help you take time to think about the meaning and joy that comes from Christ's birth. Each day of Advent, you'll receive a devotional with a meditation on a Bible passage that focuses on why Jesus came into the world to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. We believe that during this short season, this is a great tool to help you focus on the hope, joy, peace, and love we have through Christ's birth. You can sign up by visiting gospelonlife.com slash advent. Again, to sign up, go to gospelonlife.com slash advent. In addition to

the daily emails, you'll also receive a video message each Sunday. The weekly video message starts each week of Advent with a meditation from Tim Keller, followed by a brief discussion with Tim and Kathy talking about something they noticed in the meditation. It's our prayer that through this Advent series, you experience the hope and joy that comes from Christ's birth, and that it is a source of encouragement to you this Advent season. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. Now, I mean, I've told you this probably illustration before, but a perfect illustration for it. When I was a brand new minister in my very first church in a small town of Virginia, I was 24 years old, and I remember the very, very first three days, or maybe the first four days or five, but three people came to see me, almost one after the other.

Of course, they always want to, you know, people in the church want to come by and make sure the young preacher gets his head on straight and sees things the way they see them. So I remember the first day the guy comes, one person came. I can't remember actually who was. was the first one. But the very first day, the person said, you see the trailers outside. We were in a poor part of town. And there were trailers, people living in trailers around the church. And so, you see those trailers out there? I said, yes. I said, you know what? Why we're not reaching those people? None of those people come to our church. You know why we're not reaching those people? We don't have a heart for evangelism. Those people do not know Christ or they don't go to church anywhere. We don't have a heart for evangelism. We ought to be out there

sharing our faith with those people. But this church doesn't do that. Okay, duly noted. Next day or two, somebody else came by and said, a different person, said, you see those trailers out there? I said, yes, I do. And they said, you know why? What the problem with this church is? I said, no, what? Those are poor people. Those are people that are of a different social class. These are people with lots of problems, and we don't want them in our church. That's the problem. our church doesn't care about the poor our church doesn't want the kind of problems that will come if they come in they've got a lot of personal problems they've got economic problems and we don't want that and we don't know how to deal with that that's the problem with this church a lack of mercy a lack of care for the poor okay a couple days later maybe the

next day somebody else came in and said to me you see those trailers out there i said yes i do And so I mean, do you know what the problem with our church is? Now, for some reason, Noah's 24 accidentally I said something wise. And I said, no, what? Instead of saying, yeah, I already took notes, I already know what the problem with the church is. This person said, you know, our church is a lot of people have a lot of very good. They have goodwill. They've got really great intentions and they want to reach out to a neighborhood and we don't know how to do it.

This is a blue-collar church and we don't have people who not to organize. They don't know how to, they don't know how to set up a project and get They don't know how to get things done. They don't know how to get from here to there. They can set goals and they never get to them. And you know, all three people were right. And all three people had gifts that enabled them to see what was wrong, that the other people didn't have different gifts and they didn't see the same things. They were all right. And to some degree, there was contention. There has to be contention. On the other hand, when you use the theology of spiritual gifts, that enables everybody to realize, oh, the reason why I see things the way I do is

partly because I've got a gift, and I need to meet that need, and in some sense I have to honor what other people say. See, theology of spiritual gifts gets you to expect a certain amount of chaos in a church. Because a church that understands the theology of spiritual gifts, realize that there'll be ministry bubbling up all over the place, from all sorts of places. There will always be a certain anarchy about a church. If you really embrace the theology of spiritual gifts, a lot of churches don't want that. They want to be totally. control from the top? They want to say, you know, if we have a ministry idea, we people at the top, we'll tell you about it. You don't have to, you know, tell us, we'll tell you. And that destroys,

that's the virtue against the theology of spiritual gifts. So if you embrace theology of spiritual gifts, not only will not have a passive congregation, but at the same time, you will also have a certain amount of contention, a certain amount of conflict, and people will be arguing, what should we be doing, what should the priorities be? And that's right, why? Because that's the work of the Holy Spirit. Three, nevertheless, a theology of the Holy Spirit, though, creates a certain amount of contention should destroy jealousy and pride. Every organization I know, there's some jealousy and pride going on because some people end up being leaders and some people not. Some people end up with more power and influence

and some people with less. And the people with less distrust the people with more. Or maybe even are jealous or resentful of the people with more. At least they're mistrustful. And the people with more sometimes lorded over other people and feel very proud of their position. But the whole idea of spiritual gifts is that God has made all the appointments. He has made the appointment. So let me give you a case study. What do you do, oh, Presbyterians, since we're a Presbyterian church, when you elect elders, what are you doing when you elect elders?

You're only recognizing the gifts that God has given. you're only recognizing the people that God is appointed that's all and if you understand that then A if you end up getting elected you will have absolutely no pride about it and B if you are not elected you're one of the people that does the electing you know then you say this is God's appointment this isn't just this is this is this isn't people lobbying and getting their people behind it and all that so this is just God's appointment if that's what we're what should happen. The weird thing about the theology of spiritual gifts is on the one hand, if you embrace it, it creates more contention and jostling in the church. On the other hand,

it should actually be a kind of lubrication. So that as we talk and as we contend and as we push, there is a great deal of respect, there's no jealousy, there's no resentment, there's no pride, there's no arrogance. And lastly, the last implication, though, of this theology of spiritual gifts is not just the is and in a sense we're getting there fruit spiritual fruit has got to be the real goal and spiritual gifts have got to be seen only as a means the spiritual gifts are only a means of the end of the fullness of the stature of the character of jesus christ fruit and gifts are not the same thing never mistake gifts for fruit what do i mean spiritual fruit well we talked about that fairly recently, did we not? This year. Spiritual fruit are listed in Galatians chapter 5.

Spiritual fruit are character qualities, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, humility, integrity, self-control. And every Christian should have all the fruit. But spiritual gifts, we're being told. No Christian has all the spiritual gifts. Why? The difference is fruit has to do with your being. Gifts is doing. Gifts is doing. Fruit is your character, who you are. Gifts are skills and what you do. Never, ever, ever mistake gifts for fruit. And I not only have to say that everywhere in the world because the Bible says it,

but I have to say particularly in New York for the reasons I've already told you. In New York, there's a tremendous amount of emphasis on getting things done, talent, and so on. And here's what can easily happen. if you get busy if you get busy if you start to do things you start to serve people you start to volunteer

and people are helped by you people love what you're doing and it doesn't even have to be through the church if you're always putting yourself out for people so all these people depending on you you know what you can start to do you can start to say God is with me

look at all the people that I'm helping look at all the people whose lives I'm touching God is with me what are you doing you're violating the theology of spiritual gifts gifts is not fruit you're looking let me tell you what your fruit is do you find yourself getting happier and happier no matter what your circumstances more more confident even when things are bad not always up and down emotionally that's fruit or do you find yourself getting humbler and humbler and caring less and less

about criticism what people are saying about you, because you're so absolutely secure in God. That's fruit. Do you find your prayer life being rich and you sense God's presence and his love? And that's the reason why you're not as emotionally up and down and you're able to take criticism better and you're able to handle the bad circumstance. That's fruit. But here's what goes on. When you can be empty inside and you're really not doing well with God, and you're not growing in fruit, yet you get out there and you help people. And you talk to people and you encourage people, or you teach people. And they say, oh, you're helping me so much.

And then you start to feel good about yourself. Don't you dare do that? You know what you're doing? You know what you're doing? Charles Spurgeon, a great Baptist preacher some years ago, many years ago now, wrote a book for his students. These are other ministry students. And I'll never forget reading the line, he said,

don't go into the ministry to save your soul. and I remember thinking what idiot would go into the ministry if he wasn't already saved you know being an idiot myself at the time and now I know what he meant when you use spiritual gifts as a replacement for spiritual fruit when you get busy as a way of covering up your own unhappiness and emptiness on the inside and your own lack of a decent relationship with God you can get you can be big stuff in a church

but ultimately it's deadly. You know why? Because gifts without fruit is like a tire without air. Gifts without fruit, you know, when your tire is losing air, if you're moving along, it sort of stays up for a while. And then when you come to a stoplight, and there have been plenty of people whose lives were going down the drain spiritually. And yet because they were very active, many ministers, of course, so you know that. They're very famous. They do a whole lot of good, and they're actually changing a lot of people's lives. Why? Because their gifts are working. And yet inside, there are all kinds of problems, difficulties, you know, evil sin, you know, emptiness.

They're covering it up, and they look outside, and they say, look, they're the high profile. They're mistaken gifts for fruit, but anybody can do it, and people are doing it all the time. You must not do that. The point is Christ's likeness in you, the point of Christ's likeness in those other people. And therefore, never mistake gifts for fruit. Fruit is the center. Fruit is the end. You know, the gifts are only the means. That's the theology of Holy Spirit, and what a different kind of church is going to be if we embrace it.

Now, that brings us to our last point. And here's, we see, we're on the verge of needing this last point. How can we use our spiritual gifts rightly? I'd like to show you, I just did show you, that there's all kinds of ways in which the exercise of spiritual gifts is problematic. It can lead to power struggles and jealousy. In some cases, it leads to passivity, because people just don't embrace the theology at all. It can lead the burnout because people are working really so hard

to essentially fill up an emptiness in their own lives instead of going to God whether they're using their ministry and they're using their helping of other people in this way. There's all kinds of problems around spiritual gifts. How can we use them rightly? And the answer is one word. You see it here and you certainly see it in First Corinthians when Paul talks about it. It's the word love. Notice, verse 15 and 16. The whole point is, speaking the truth, in love, we'll build ourselves up into the fullness of Christ. When every part of the body is doing its thing, rightly, the body builds itself up in love, over and over. Paul never gets the spiritual gifts without talking about love. And of course, most famously, in 1st Corinthians 12 and 14, he's talking about

spiritual gifts and smack in the middle of verse 15, verse 13, chapter 13, Paul gives the famous passage on love. Why? Because Paul says over and over, if you're passive and not using your gifts, that's just a lack of love. You're being selfish. If you're burnout and overworked because you're ministering to everybody and helping everybody because out of an inner emptiness, it's because of a lack of love. You don't really have God's love in your life. If you're swaggering and powerful, it's a lack of love. If you're jealous and envious of somebody who's got the power, that's a lack of love. You need love, or the spiritual gifts are going to kill us,

or the lack of the spiritual gifts are going to kill us. How do you get that love? You have to go to the part of the passage, which was the one part when it was read to you that you didn't understand at all. That's the key, as it so often is. What is that? It's the beginning of the passage. To each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

Whenever I've read this over the years, I read verse 7, then I get down to verse 11, which makes sense again, and you keep reading. But what is all this? This is why it says when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train, he gave gifts to men. What does he ascended mean, except he also descended to the lower earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. You know what that is. follow me, it only take about 120 seconds, and you'll start to see the wonder of what Paul's saying.

In ancient times, if a king was in his city and there was an enemy coming to invade and enslave everyone, the king would go out to fight the enemy. And if he won, if he delivered his people from oppression and captivity, he would return triumphantly and he would go back to his throne. send his throne and sit down so his presence was again in the midst of the people and he would give gifts. That is, he would take the riches that he'd won in his conquest, which would enrich the entire city. Now, in Psalm 68, verse 18, which is what Paul is quoting here, the psalmist looks at a particular incident and reads it through that basic grid of what conquering kings would do.

They'd go out, you know, save the people from oppression, ascend back in, bring in their presence and then give gifts. And they're looking at something that happened. The psalmist was looking at the fact that David the king brought the ark of the covenant, which represented the Shikina presence of God, into Jerusalem, ascended Mount Zion, which is the place in Jerusalem where the tabernacle was,

and brought the ark of the covenant into the holy of holies. And the reason why this whole psalm is celebrating that is in a way it's realizing God is the ultimate king. and this is the end as it were of the Exodus because God had brought the people out of slavery, out of captivity. You know, he defeated Egypt and he brought them out of captivity. And now, finally, God was ascending his throne and he was now present in the midst of his people in the tabernacle.

And they were, the fruits of that triumph was milk and honey of the promised land. And so that's what the psalmist is talking about, but Jesus, but listen, Paul always reads the Old Testament like you and I ought to read the Old Testament, Christocentricly. He never can never stop thinking about Jesus. And he reads that psalm about David bringing the ark and the presence of God ascending and gifts and the triumph of God over oppression. And suddenly Paul realizes God was not done. When that was over, God was not done.

God the king had a bigger enemy to defeat, sin and death. And God the king had a way of dwelling in the midst of his people better than the ark in the tabernacle. And God had even better spiritual gifts to give. You know what happened? Here's how God did it. Jesus Christ descended. That's the key. He descended.

He descended from heaven to earth. He descended from honor and glory to abuse and rejection and to torture and death. He was humiliated. He was destroyed. He descended. Why? When he went to the cross, do you know what he was doing? He was defeating the ultimate Egypt, sin and death. And he was getting pardon for our sins. So not just a box. The Ark of the Covenant was a box which represented the presence of God. So the Holy Spirit could actually come into our lives because our sins are atoned for. So the presence of God could come into our midst. and we could get the ultimate spiritual gifts, which is the power of the Holy Spirit himself to bring people to a relationship with God. That, his love. David brought the Ark of the Covenant.

He brought the presence of God to the people at the risk of his life, but Jesus Christ did it at the cost of his life. Jesus descended, he lost everything. There's love. And there's the love that you need. unless you are melted by and shaped by and profoundly changed by a knowledge of that love that he did all that for you all of that for you you are not able to really minister your spiritual gifts properly but see that and you can

so in the end do you want to exercise your spiritual gifts rightly number one you got to have the holy spirit you got to be a christian you have to believe the gospel can't you use your spiritual gifts if you don't have the spirit. Okay. Number two, how do I identify my spiritual gifts? Not as hard as you think. Try a lot of different kinds of ministries and then consult your own heart and consult the church. Consult the people around you. But thirdly, look at Jesus. Look at this guy, look at this perfect man in the gospels. See something so beautiful. See his character. See his holiness and yet his love. See his forgiveness and yet his strength and boldness. See that and say, I don't want to just be happy anymore.

I want to be like him. And I want all the people that I love around me to be like him. And now, use your spiritual gifts. Now it's safe. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us this great theology of spiritual gifts. And we pray that we here in New York City would embrace it. So we would be neither passive nor proud.

So we would be constantly, recognizing the wonderful chaos of spiritual gifts, but at the same time, the knowledge that you have appointed what you've appointed keeps us, keeps our pride down, makes us humble, makes us able to listen to other people. Most of all, oh Lord, we want to use our gifts to bear spiritual fruit in people's lives. And we ask that you would help us to never forget that, never get our eyes filled with, we don't want to be star-eyed about gifts. What we really want is we want to see Christ-likeness grow in our own hearts and in the hearts of the people around us. Make us a church in which that is what happens.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel on Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel on Life monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelonlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelonlife.com slash partner.

Today's sermon was recorded in 2010. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Thank you.