Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Search for Identity

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

When it comes to building up identity and self-esteem, I’m afraid Americans are very pragmatic—and our pragmatism gets to us. Our books and articles say if you want self-esteem, you should lose weight, change your friends, switch your career, and so on. But nobody asks why. They don’t like to think about the underlying theory. It’s important to understand that there are certain reigning theories of identity formation. Unless you recognize them and analyze them, you’ll just pick them up like a virus.  Let’s divide our inquiry into two parts: 1) what the world says is the way to find out who you are and 2) what the Bible says is the way to find out who you are. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 10, 1993. Series: Modern Problems; Ancient Solutions. Scripture: Psalm 8. 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. Our culture places so much faith in empirical reason, technology, and personal experience that it's easy to wonder, does something as old as Christianity have any relevance to the problems of modern life? This month, Tim Keller invites us to consider how Christianity is more relevant than ever in offering answers to the deepest longings of our hearts. I'd like to read to you from Psalm 8. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained to praise, because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels, the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands. You put everything under his feet, all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Let's pray. Father, be with us. This is such a marvelous and thrilling part of your Word, and we ask that you help us to understand it, not simply in a cognitive way. We pray that you help us to understand it, not simply in a cognitive way. We pray that you help us to understand it through our hearts and understand it so well that it affects the way we think and move and live and speak and have our being.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. This psalm is amazing. Listen, we've been looking at the Psalms and every week we find a psalm that, though it's very ancient, addresses some major issue that we face here at the end of the 20th century. And there is nothing more characteristic of modern life than the search for identity and for self-esteem. You see it in the titles of all the books in the bookstore. You see it on the TV shows. You hear it when you have lunch with anybody that you're working with. It's a constant theme. I gotta find myself. I gotta find out who I am. I've gotta learn to like myself. Now, from a certain vantage point, you have to understand that this is a

tremendously modern problem. It's very new. Can you imagine From a certain vantage point, you have to understand that this is a tremendously modern problem. It's very new. Can you imagine 500 years ago, 400 or 500 years ago, what it would have been like if you had said to your friends, I don't know who I am? You know, imagine this is around 1550 now, you know, it's around 1550. I don't know who I am. I have to find myself. What would your friends say?

They'd look at you and they'd say, you don't know who you are? Don't you have a name? Don't you have a family? Don't you have a vocation? Don't you have a country? Don't you have a religion? And that's what they would say, absolutely.

And you know the reason why people didn't really ask back on the question? I'll tell you why. It's not because the formation of a personal identity didn't happen. It's got to happen. We've got to know who we are and feel that what we are is a valuable, worthwhile thing. But for many years, up until modern times, the formation of identity actually took care of itself. It just happened.

And it doesn't just happen anymore. And you know why? Here's why. Because instead of a vocation, we just have a series of jobs. Instead of a family, we have a series of living arrangements. Instead of religion, instead of a faith, you know what you have is you have a series of meditation techniques

and seminars on how to deal with stress and little booklets that you can pick up in the grocery store on how to win over guilt feelings. Instead of those things that were constant, now we have a series of disposable items and situations. And as a result, formation doesn't just happen, the formation of identity. We have got to get in, in a sense we have to be conscious and we have to find an approach and we have to figure out who we are. So I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying that it always happened, but in modern times

we now are more in charge of that. We actually have to do it. So everybody in this room is doing it. How are you doing it? I would like to submit that there are several theories reigning in the modern world right now on how to go about building up an identity, building up your self-esteem. And when it comes to this, I'm afraid Americans are,

they're very pragmatic and our pragmatism gets to us. One of the things I found which is different between in Europe, theological training in America. In other words, in Europe, how do ministers study to be ministers and how in America ministers study to be ministers? In Europe, there's lots of theology, lots of theory, and very little in the way of telling you how to balance

a church budget and how to run a small group and how to manage a church. Very little on the how-to's, very big on the theory and theology. Here in America, lots of how-to's and very sort of down on the theory. In law school, in Europe, jurisprudence, the philosophy of law is a requirement

because they figure that you certainly wanna know why you're practicing law and what you're practicing before you learn how to. In America, the law school's jurisprudence is very often an elective. The philosophy of law is an elective. All that matters is that you learn how to put together a case, that you learn how to do it. Americans tend to be pragmatic, and the same thing happens, but it trips us up in this area of self-esteem.

Read the books, read the articles on self-esteem, and you'll see that they're totally pragmatic, and they don't like to think about the theory underlying. So, for example, if you pick up, I just picked up a couple magazines that I saw were on self-esteem, and they did surveys. They said, now, people who lose weight, if you lose weight, you'll find that it helps your self-esteem.

People who are making more money, it helps their self-esteem. And there's all these lists. So, if you want self-esteem, lose weight, change your friends, switch your career, and so on. But nobody asks why. Nobody asks for the underlying theory. Nobody says, why does losing weight in America

make you feel better about yourself? Should it? Is that the way to find self-esteem? Is that important? Why? Nobody asks that. All we know is, hey, statistics show that if you lose weight, you'll,

in other words, we're so pragmatic, we only want to know what works. So we say, have a makeover. That'll make you feel better about yourself. Change your friends. Lose weight. But nobody underneath says, but why? What is the theory? I would like to suggest that it's very important for us today to understand

that there are certain theories of identity formation that are reigning, they're regnant in the world today. And unless you know what those theories are, unless you recognize them and analyze them, you'll just pick them up like a virus. And most everybody that I know, to some degree or another, is infected by one or more than one of them. You pick them up, unless you see them, unless you recognize them, you'll never be free of them. If you want to be free of them, you have to see what they are.

So let's divide our teaching today into two parts. The first part is, what the world says is the way to find out who you are and what the Bible says is the way to find out who you are. What the world says what the Bible says. Okay, first what the world says I suggest that there are probably three basic approaches to this issue of self-esteem and identity that you're gonna find. Here's what they are. Number one, the first way, the first modern way is, I am what I acquire. I call this the Upper East Side approach to identity.

The 80s approach to identity, the Victorian approach to identity. And this is the approach that says the important thing is to make yourself whatever you need to get. Now people want to get everything. There's a lot of different things. Some people want to get money. Some people really don't want money. They just want recognition and status. Some people don't want that. They want someone to love them. But it's all basically the same. If you watch the cute little movie with the new movie that's out right now with Michael J. Fox called For Love or Money, it's all basically the same. If you watch the cute little movie, the new movie that's out right now with Michael J. Fox

called For Love or Money, it's all based on this particular way of finding your identity. You've got Michael J. Fox who thinks that unless I make money, I'm nothing. I've gotta have money. And then the other woman, I don't even know the actress's name,

you notice it just says Michael J. Fox up there, and I look in vain in the credits to even find her. I don't even know the actress's name, you notice it just says Michael J. Fox up there, and I look in vain in the credits to even find her. I don't even know what her name was, but anyway, the actress, the female lead, she wants a man to love her. That's all she wants. Now, they sneer at each other in the movie. She sneers at him because all that matters is money when she's after love, and he sneers at her because you know she just wants a man to

to validate her and they sneer at each other but you see there's a the same theory of identity is working under each one of them. They're selling their souls to get something that they feel they've got to have and so they lose a coherent sense of self. They're doing anything they want, they do anything they have to do. They compromise their principles just so they get their thing. And the point is, they feel like, I am what I acquire. I am what I accomplish. Hard work. See? Get to the top. Does this work?

It doesn't work. See? Get to the top. Does this work? It doesn't work. Most people who lose themselves in their work find out that they just lose themselves. And the reason it doesn't work is this. If you decide that the thing that will give me my identity is success in a career, or romantic love, or a certain amount of money and possessions,

you will find that you have no coherent self inside. See, the word identity literally means to be the same. It means to be the same in every situation. How do you know who you are? After all, you know, I'm different. If you heard me on the phone with my mother, it sure wouldn't sound like the same person who gets up here before the microphone in front of you. That's because I'm your pastor, I'm her son.

Those are two very different roles. You don't talk with the same tone of voice. There's everything, there's so many different roles, but is there a core of sameness? Is there a set of commitments? Is there a core of values and goals at my heart that never changes regardless of whether I'm talking to you or whether I'm talking to her no matter what? That's identity.

Identity is there's something about me that's always the same. There's a coherent core. Let me tell you something. If you make money or love or anything that you have to acquire out there in the world, your identity, you won't have a coherent core. You will do whatever it takes to get it,

which means that there's no sameness, there's no integrity. You sell your soul, you lose yourself. And I'll tell you what else. If you actually fail to get it, you will find out that there's no you in there at all. There's nothing but a void. To build your life on anything but God turns you into something superficial,

turns you into a facade. We talked about this several weeks ago. Turns you into something hollow. It doesn't work. So the first approach is, I am what I own, I am what I acquire, I am what I accomplish. I am my work. Doesn't work.

Because you'll find that all you do is you lose yourself. Get around those successful families. It's amazing when you get around so many successful people, the brokenness there. Go into those successful families. It's amazing when you get around so many successful people, the brokenness there. Go into those successful families. You see the brokenness, you see the drug and alcohol abuse, you see that the kids all have eating disorders. What's going on here?

Because as Hermann Hesse put it, that great writer, that German writer, he says, I have become a writer, but I have not become a human being. What he means is I did everything I possibly could to really become great at my job. I acquired, and it turned out I'd never really got myself a self.

So the first way, it's too external, it's too artificial. But then there's a second approach. A second modern approach to identity is not I am what I own or what I acquire, I am what I feel. I'll put it this way, if the first answer was sort of the East side approach to identity, this is the West side approach to identity. If the first one was the Victorian approach, this is the romanticist approach.

If the first one was the, you might say the 80s approach, this is the 60s and 70s approach. I am what I feel. Now, you've heard this before, but let me put some flesh on it for a moment. This is the view that says, the important thing is not hard work and accomplishment, the important thing is to get in touch

with your deepest feelings. Lots of people go from one view to the other, by the way. Lots of people were into the first, into the second view in the 60s and they got rid of it and got out into the first view for the 80s. And other people have been into the first view and they finally decided this doesn't work, I've lost myself and they jump into the second view, usually after they go into therapy. But the second view is, what's important is that you understand your deepest feelings. Now the language of this view is something like this.

I am done doing what everybody else wants me to do. I am done living up to everybody else's expectations. I've gotta be me. I've gotta find out who I am. What I most deeply want and be true to that. So the goal is a complete integration of action and feeling. There's a real problem with this view though, a real problem. The view is it assumes something very big

for which there is no scientific evidence and there's not even any common sense evidence for it. This assumes that underneath all There's no scientific evidence, there's not even any common sense evidence for it. This assumes that underneath all of your conflicting feelings, there is a bedrock of coherent desires. Primary, steady, and constant. That underneath all of the, you might say, the shifting and changing and contradictory feelings you have in your conscious level, but down deep, that there is a whole set of true feelings, true desires, and if you can just find out what those are

and become true to that, then you'll have an identity. Does that make sense? For example, I watched a talk show for about five minutes earlier this week, in which there was a 17-year-old boy who was on the show with his mother and he wanted a sex change operation. And the only problem that the mother had with it was, and the only problem the audience had with it was, is this what he really wants?

He's after all, he's awfully young. What does he really want? And so you see the assumption is that if we can just get down deep enough to find out what we truly want, if we can find that coherent set of desires, then we can know what we are. Let me ask you a question. What evidence have you got that your feelings at the deepest level are any less contradictory than your feelings at the conscious level? What evidence have you got for the fact that, for the idea that down deep there is a true set of feelings that are unified and coherent? Look at your feelings. You know, I want a

career, I want a family. I want to eat ice cream, I want to be a size eight. Those are all contradictory feelings. We want them. We love them. Now you say, ah, but there's a deeper, down deep, what I really want is, what do you mean? Now, for example, I talk to men and I talk to women who say, I really want a career, but I really want a family. Okay, what's your truest feeling?

What's your truest desire? I tell you, you want it all the way to the bottom. You want both of those things. Those things are intention. Are you trying to tell me that eventually, if you push down, you'll know that I should just get rid of my family? I should just divorce, get rid of them,

because what I really want, the real me is to be a career person. Or should you say, the real thing is, I just need to drop out, I need to get a poor paying job because what I really want is just to have a family talk on it. Don't you understand those things are in tension in your life because you want them both and what's wrong with that? Down deep, the Bible says you've got both the flesh and the spirit.

Down deep, your innermost feelings are just as much at war as they are up here. There is no coherent, single strain of desires that if you could just find them one person, in one book I read this week, put it this way, if you want to say I'm going to guide my life by my feelings, I'm going to find what my deepest feelings are, he says, you know what that's like? It's like trying to drive a car by putting your foot down all the way to the floor on both the brake and the accelerator at the same time.

Because your feelings will just pull you apart. You will never get a coherent view of the self. You will never get a coherent idea of what the self is. Do you know what it means to have a self? It means to have an identity, it means to have a sameness. There's something about me that's always there. I'm always committed to it, regardless of my changing feeling states.

Regardless of my changing roles, it's always there. You think you're gonna find that by following your feelings? That is silly. They contradict. And you know what's, just to let you know, what's really wrong with this whole view. I don't need outside validation,

I don't care what anybody else thinks, I'm just gonna do what I think. That's actually, practically speaking, hogwash. Whenever you see these people go on the TV talk shows and they're there to say, I have found out what I want and I'm doing it no matter what anybody else thinks. Oh really, what are they doing on the talk show?

They're on the talk show so people can say, how brave, how noble, how great, I'm all for you. They're desperately seeking people's approval. The fact of the matter is, God did not make us so that we can validate ourselves. We can't validate ourselves. We can't just look and say, everybody else in the world thinks that you're crazy, but I know I'm okay.

That is not the way to get an identity. That's the way to go into an insane asylum. There's plenty of people in insane asylums who have decided that they're the only people in the whole world that have to sign off on their feelings and on their behavior and on their attitude and on their character. Nobody can validate themselves. Nobody feels good about themselves unless somebody from the outside says, with you I'm

well pleased. Well done, good and faithful servant. So the first view is to external. The second view is to internal. The first view leads to artificiality. The second view leads to superficiality. The first view, you lose yourself by trying to get something on the outside. The second view, you lose yourself by trying to find some coherent hole on the inside. Neither of them work. There's a third view, which we need to at least mention

before we talk about what Psalm 8 says is the biblical way to find an identity. The third, I'll be real brief about this and maybe downstairs afterwards you could talk more about it. It's a new view, but on the other hand, it's the most consistent. As I said, there was an East Side view that says, I am what I have acquired.

And there's the West Side view that says, I am what I feel. And there's the Downtown view that says, I am whatever I say I am. This is the Postmodern view, this is the Deconstructionist view. And here's why it's consistent and yet very terrifying. And in a sense it shows up the structural defects in the other two views. All of these other two views have assumed that if you want to believe in God, fine,

but God is optional to a coherent self-image. The other views say God is optional. Well this view comes right out and gets real consistent and says, hey, if it's true that really there is no God, there's no eternal God that we have to submit to. There's a God if you want to believe in him, but there's no God in heaven that we have to submit to. If that's true, then it's silly to talk about a coherent self. It's silly to talk about a self that you can discover. Oh no, says this view. It's silly to talk about a self that you can discover. Oh no, says this view.

Don't try to discover the self. Don't try to find yourself. You create yourself. Identity is never discovered. It's only constructed. You are whatever the heck you say you are. Now this came from Jean Paul Sartre, but now it's picking up a lot of steam. And it is a movement away.

It would say that the first view is oppressive and bourgeois. It would say the second view though is naive and fantastic. Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the other is wrong? Has science basically disproved Christianity? Tim Keller addresses these questions and more in his book, The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith,

whether you're a believer seeking reassurance or you're reading it with a friend who is searching for answers. When you give to Gospel on Life during the month of May, we'll send you two copies of The Reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend who is exploring Christianity. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. The books are our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive your two copies of The Reason for God, simply make a gift at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. We also encourage you to check out our short podcast series, Questioning Christianity,

for people exploring the claims of the Christian faith. To listen to this short series or share it with a friend, visit Gospelonlife.com slash questioning. That's Gospelonlife.com slash questioning. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us, because the gospel truly changes everything. And if you want to listen, there's a big, just to give you a quick example of the fact that this view, it's consistent and it's terrifying.

But this view is coming on, is I, I noticed, for example, in reading the Village Voice last year, during the Gay Pride Week, it pointed out that the old gay pride movement was based on the second view of the self that said, movement was based on the second view of the self that said that if you're gay it's because you've found something in yourself. You found out who you really are and you have to submit to it. You have to. This is just who you are. This is the way you are. So you have to do it. And the whole gay, original gay liberation you might call movement was based on that. But now there's a growing number of people inside the gay movement called the bi-queer movement. The bi-queer movement is full of people who were told for years

that if you're gay that's all you can be and they found that they're capable of heterosexual activity. And so they say, I wasn't a sexual non-finding, I'm bisexual, but they question the whole idea that you have to submit to a certain kind of self and sexuality. This group says it's oppressive to say, I've got to be something. It's oppressive to say that any particular self I have to discover, all self is constructed, all self is chosen, I am whoever I say to discover. All self is constructed. All self is chosen. I am whoever I say I am. They have discovered in personal life, they've discovered that sexuality and selfhood is malleable. And as a result they're coming after the old, by the way, in the gay movement, they're

coming after the old-time gay activists, and they're saying, you mustn't say there's an essential self that we have to submit to. You can't. That's oppressive. That's dehumanizing. You can be whoever you want to be. You must be whoever you want to be. And there is no essential self in there that you have to submit to. So the point of the third view, it's coming on, it reigns in the arts in Manhattan.

So so much of the arts is a violent assault on any identity categories at all. That says you can be and you must be whatever you choose to be. The important thing is not hard work and the important thing is not finding your true feelings. The important thing is freedom. The authentic person is someone who chooses to be and you are what you are simply because you say you are. There's a problem with this. A major problem. It's perfectly consistent.

And it will decimate the other two views. And the other two views are intellectually, they are defenseless against it. Because you see, if there is no God, if there is no eternal world, if there's no essence that was put into you, if there's no law that we have to submit to, then everything is random.

And we can do whatever we want. The only problem with it is, you can't live this way at all. It's impossible to live in a way that isn't immediately contradictory. So for example, let me just give you a good example. The people with this third view, you know, the view of the deconstructionist say

it's oppressive to tell people that they have to live in a certain way. Wait a minute, how could something be oppressive? For example, Tim Keller, the preacher, telling people thou shalt not commit adultery, that's oppressive. How could it be oppressive? That's just who I am.

I have freely chosen this. I like to oppress people. I like to step on people. I like to make people feel guilty. And on the basis of their own view, they have no right to say that what you're doing is wrong. That would be to say there's some kind of essence, there's some kind of truth that we have to bow to.

Oh, but the whole idea behind this view is there is no such thing. And therefore, as soon as you start to say it's oppressive to make people into a certain way, you've already blown your cover. You can't even live consistently with your own approach. And if you want to see what happens with this approach, you ought to read the biography. It's called The Passion of Michael Foucault, who was, he's now dead, but he's

one of the French deconstructionists and he was a very major proponent of this view. You read it and you'll see that it leads to cruelty. It leads to being cruel. It means that you've got absolutely nothing that you, there's no, there's no morality, there's no boundaries, you see. There's nothing we have to be true to. We can do anything we want. You'd expect it to lead to cruelty and it does. It's impossible. So the first view is too external.

The second view is too internal. The third view is just plain impossible. And yet, if there is no God, it's the only view we've really got. What do we have instead here in the Bible? Don't you see that the reason I'm asking you to look at the theories instead of just read the articles, when somebody says, ah, when you lose weight and you look better and you look more like the toothpaste ads, you have higher self-esteem. Okay, why? You're operating on a theory. I, my identity is wrapped up in my physical attractiveness. Is that a good

idea? Isn't that a dead end? In the way we've been talking about? You see? Or you read another book, a thing on self-esteem, and it says do this, have a makeover and so forth. Let's look at the theories, and the theories underneath all of the how-to's of self-esteem are woefully inadequate. The Bible gives us a completely different alternative. The Bible says that self-esteem is not a psychological issue primarily. First of all, it's a theological issue-esteem is not a psychological issue primarily. First of all, it's a theological issue. It's not a matter of psychological theories.

It's a matter of what you worship and what you serve. And the basic truth of Psalm 8, as we've read it, is this. The more you see and realize the glory and majesty of God, the more you will see and realize the glory and honor of God, the more you will see and realize the glory and honor of your own individual self. The glory of God and the honor and glory of the human individual are bound up together. They are wrapped up together.

The more you see the greatness of God, the more you'll see the greatness of the human individual. On the other hand, the less you see it, or if you don't believe that it's there, the glory and majesty of God, then you have no basis for the glory and honor of the individual. Oh Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name

in all the earth. What is man that you were mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him, you made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and you crowned him with glory and honor. Let me show you how these things are bound together. They're bound together in this way. Let's ask this question, let's go to theory. Did the universe get created by a great, majestic creator, as Psalm 8 is saying, or is the universe an accident? Now, if the universe is created by a great creator, then everything in it,

including you and me, is a work of art. Now, if it was created by a creator, then we can't Now, if it was created by a creator, then we can't live as we wish, can we? We can't live as we wish because we would have to honor this great creator who created us and therefore he owns us and therefore we have to listen to his will. But on the other hand, we would know that we are valuable. We would know that we are crowned with glory and honor. We would know that we are valuable. We would know that we are crowned with glory and honor. We would know that we are precious works of art. Or on the other hand, either it's created by God or else it wasn't.

If it wasn't created by God, you see the psalmist looks at the heavens. I see the vastness of the heavens. See, I look at the moon and the stars, the sun and the moon which you have set in place. And because it's all created, therefore I know that I'm a work of art. On the other hand, let's just say we look at the vastness of the heavens and we don't see that God has created anything, that there

is any creator. Let's say it's an accident. In that case, you and I are a piece of junk. There's no purpose for us. We're absolute accidents. We're just a collocation of molecules that happen to come together in a certain way. There's no purpose for us and there's no value to us. A piece of junk is no value. Something only has value, you see, if it can be used, if it has a design, if it fulfills a purpose. Well there's no such thing as purpose. In other words, if you look at the heavens, like it says in verse three, if you look at the heavens as it says in verse three,

and you say it's all an accident, in that case, you can live as you want. The postmodernists are right. There is no self, there's no coherent self, there's no essence, there's no purpose, so you're free to live as you like. But you are a piece of junk. There's no basis for saying that there's a self, that you're valuable or you're worthwhile.

You can't have it both ways. Now, this is exactly what modern people want. I was reading, to have it both ways I mean, I was reading a very popular, not a great book, but a popular book written by a couple of psychiatrists on codependency. It's a good book and it was written for popular consumption, but what they do in there is exactly what modern people want to do and I'm here to show you, Psalm 8 is here to show you that you may not do this, you may not do this. You can't do it. You kill yourself to do it.

In the first part of the book, they say that codependency happens because people are ashamed of themselves. They feel unworthy. And they say they feel unworthy because they feel that there is a God and that there's a law and that they have failed. So in the first part of the book, it says, traditional religion is a great culprit in codependency. And they go on and they say therefore you should not be, you should decide what you

want to believe. You shouldn't be oppressed by traditional religion. You decide how you want to live. You decide what your moral values are. You make those decisions on your own. Live as you want. That's the first part of the book. Then in the second part of the book they come up with the fact that people still persist

in believing that they're worthless and that they're valueless and that they're pieces of junk. So here's what they do. Suddenly, on page 53 of the book, they say this, many of us were not taught that we are valuable simply because we are. That's all. We may have failed people, but we are still precious because we are alive and exist,

therefore we are of worth in and of ourselves. Wait a minute. You see what they're doing? I want to live any old way I want. But then I want to turn around and say, you know, here's what's amazing. They take this poor person who's sitting there saying, I'm a worthless piece of junk, and they say, no, you're wrong. And they impose a value on. They say, your belief is wrong. You are precious. You are beautiful. You are lovable. You are worthwhile.

Where do they get it? If you get rid of the idea that there's a God who is there that we have to believe in, you take away the basis for saying such a thing. Certainly you take away the basis for going after a person and actually telling them they're wrong. If we can think of God any way we want, then we can think of human beings any way we want. If you can live any way you want, then you have no basis for saying, I can't feel like trash, or treat other people like trash.

There's no basis for appeal. If God is glorious and majestic, and if he made the heavens, then I am a work of art crowned with glory and honor. It means I know that I'm valuable, but I can't live any way I want. Or if God did not make the heavens, then everything is an accident. Then I can live any way I want. I can choose my own identity.

I can be whatever I want. I can construct whatever I want. But I have no basis for saying that I or anybody else is valuable and precious. And yet we can't live without it. Oh, we desperately need to believe what they say in that codependency book. We desperately want to believe it. But I tell you, and see here's what's so interesting. People who deny the idea of the God of the Bible, people who say they can live any old way they want, still have to smuggle into their own lives truths and confidences that are

only available to people who believe what Psalm 8 says about God. They have to, in a sense, steal crumbs out of the Christian cupboard. They can't live on the basis of their own views. They cannot. Oh, Christianity gives you a whole different base. It doesn't build a castle in the air. Christianity doesn't say you're valuable and precious simply because you're valuable and precious. Oh my gosh, no. It says here in verse five, thou hast made him. Now listen very carefully to this. The Bible says, thou hast made him, thou hast made man a little lower than the gods.

Now, it doesn't say that. The translation in Hebrew is very cryptic. It says, you have made humanity a little lower than the gods. Now of course, the Bible doesn't believe there's more than one god. It's probably talking about the angels. But it's using the word divinities here as a way of saying,

God made human beings so high and noble that we are just short of divinity. If you read carefully, verse 5 says, you made him just a little bit lower than the divinities. And then verse 6 says, you put them over the animals. That means that we have got things that only God has. In Genesis, it's called the image of God. We are created in the image of God. What does that mean? Think. Now, over the years, people... Let me give you a summary. The image of God means that like God, we have a rational aspect and therefore we need, we hunger to learn and to know things. Just we hunger for knowledge for its own sake.

The animals don't. We have a rational aspect and therefore we have a hunger to learn. Secondly, we have a personal aspect and therefore we have a hunger to love and be loved. Thirdly, we have an eternal aspect, and therefore we have the hunger to last. We hate the idea of death. We want to do something that counts, that lasts. Like God, we have an eternal aspect. We have eternity in our minds. We have immortal souls. And then fourthly, we have a creative aspect, which means we have a hunger for beauty. In all these things, we're just a little lower than the gods.

We're just short of divinity. We're below the divinity, but above all the rest of the created order. In other words, God has made us crowned with his own glory and honor. Now, you know what that means? Everybody in this room needs to hear this. In the depths of your soul, it's the only way you're ever going to get a sense of personal value and coherence. We need to know that someone sees us as so special and so precious

that their minds are dominated with us. This tells us that God is mindful of us. We are so precious and so unusual and so magnificent that we dominate the mind of God. I had a friend of mine, Bruce, he was my best man at my wedding, and he's now a child psychologist, he was even long ago, he's been a child psychologist for quite a number of years now actually, and he had an interesting case once. In central Pennsylvania there was a school district that called him in to consult because they had a seven year old boy in an elementary school that every day, the minute they stopped policing him, the minute that anybody took their eyes off of him, he would immediately dash out of his room, dash down the hall, dash out the front

door, dash out of the parking lot, and just run as fast as he possibly could away from the school. Just go forever until they brought him back. Every day, out of the kitchen, out of the cafeteria, out of the classroom, out of the playground, doesn't matter, as soon as anybody left, wham, out he went. And everybody was at their wits end.

The elementary school teacher, the principal, what are we gonna do? So they bring in this child psychologist, the psychologist, my friend Bruce sits down and talks to the kid, talks to everybody, and he sits down with the parents, and he sits down with the parents, and he sits down with the teacher, the principal, he says, I got an idea.

Next time he runs, don't chase him. Just don't chase him. Just go ahead. Just go on with life the way. Just don't chase him. Guess what? The first time he ran out the door and ran out, you know, out of sight, everybody just,

nobody chased him, everybody just went about their business. Within about 10 minutes he was back and never did it again. And what my friend Bruce said, listen, we have a need to be noticed. It's so desperate, if we can't get good attention, we'll get bad attention. We need to know that we fill people's minds. We need to know that someone is mindful of us. There's nothing worse than to go away and to realize, nobody missed you. That need is so deep, well look at this. Talk about fulfillment, talk about identity, talk about value.

The only mind that matters is filled with you. The great and ultimate mind is mindful of you. And until you know that, you will never treat yourself with the dignity you deserve. You see, you're a work of art. Some of you are artists. How do artists look at their work? Jealously, lovingly, you gaze at your work. You have aspirations for your work. You've poured your own heart into your work. You've poured your own heart into your work. A piece of art is valuable, a piece of art is precious, and a piece of art is an expression

of the inner being of the artist. The artists, they gaze and they aspire and they long over their artwork, and that is how God looks at you. What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou carest for him? You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and have crowned him with glory and honor. Now, you can't live any old way you want, can you? Oh no,

it's by obeying God that you find yourself. It's by coming to God that you see yourself. The more majestic God is to you, see verse one and verse eight, the more majestic, that's his royalty. The more majestic he is in your mind, the greater he is, the more of his royal presence is in your life, the more you will understand your own glory and honor and how he is mindful with you.

Now, one more thing. Psalm eight isn't sufficient without Hebrews chapter two. Psalm 8 tells us that you were made, we were all made to be these great creations. We were made to take care of the earth, to rule over and cultivate the earth. And we were made to be these great triumphant beings. But here's the problem.

If you just stop with Psalm 8 and try to work on your own identity and your own sense of self-worth with Psalm 8 as it stands, you're going to run into a problem. Because you're going to say, you know, I know I want to be this glorious person, this rational, personal, eternal, creative person. I know that there's a lot about me that's great. I know that I'm not an animal.

I know that I'm not a piece of junk. I know that I'm not an accident. And yet, I don't see myself crowned with glory and honor. I've made a real mess of things. I continually make a mess of things. Humanity has made a mess of things. So how in the world can the Bible come and say that we're these great, radiant, wonderful,

incredible creatures? Well, you know what's interesting? Hebrews chapter 2 anticipates our problem. And in Hebrews 2, it quotes Psalm 8. It says, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels, you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. And then it says, get this, this is amazing,

and this says down here in verse eight, yet at the present we do not see everything under our feet. Yeah, we look at ourselves and we say we're a mess, and the world's a mess. How could we be these great wonderful things that the Bible says we are? Look at, it says, but we do not see everything

under our feet, verse nine, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. Do you see that? What it's trying to say is look at yourself, look at ourselves. We're not crowned with glory and honor, but Jesus is. He was made, Hebrews says, a little lower than the angels. He came down. He became a little less. He became like us.

And he lived a perfect life. And he died a perfect death for us. So that if you receive him, you receive the crown in him. He's crowned with glory and honor. He is the perfect humanity. And when you receive him as Lord and Savior, you receive that in him. See what it's trying to say? It says, if you just look at Lord and Savior, you receive that in Him. See what it's trying to say? It says, if you just look at yourself and say, I know I'm a wonderful person, God made me to be a wonderful work of art,

you keep looking at yourself, you say, but I don't see myself crowned in glory and honor. I do not see everything under my feet, but I see Jesus. Who is crowned with glory and honor? Because He came down, He became a little lower Who is crowned with glory and honor? Because he came down, he became a little lower than the angels, and he tasted death for us. Now, do you live in holy consciousness of that every day?

Do you say to yourself, like it says in that great hymn, bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown in Christ my own. Remember that? Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown in Christ my own. Do you remind yourself of that every day? In Christ I am now crowned with glory and honor. Do you remind yourself of that every day or else do you say, gosh, nobody's asking me out? Or I should have been promoted by now. My career is going nowhere.

What's wrong? Isn't the honor of being in Christ enough? Don't you know? Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover the Gospel in Life podcast. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.