Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Thy Will Be Done

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

To many people, the whole point of prayer is this: how do you get God to give you what you need? Now, that’s not the point of prayer, and if you think it is, you will get very little. That’s the irony. Prayer is very effective for those people who don’t come into it hoping it will primarily be a way to get God to give you things. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus shows us that after you are done centering your heart and mind on the fatherhood of God and submitting to his lordship by saying, “your will be done,” then you can go and start asking him for your daily bread, for protection, for provision. So there’s an order here that must be honored, or else you rip up the fabric of prayer. Let’s look at what it means to pray with this order: 1) first accepting “your will be done,” and 2) then asking. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 27, 1990. Series: The Lord’s Prayer 1990. Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15. 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 and Life. During January, we're inviting our listeners to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Monthly partners are an important part in helping us to plan for how we can be the most effective in reaching people all over the world with the gospel. If you'd like to become a monthly partner, just visit gospelonlife.com slash partner. That's gospelonlife.com slash partner. What is holding you back from truly trusting in God, from not just believing in his existence, but letting the power of his word change how you approach daily life, work, and relationships? In today's message, Tim Keller looks at one of Jesus' most well-known teachings to explain how

true faith begins when we stop trying to control our own lives and start trusting in the God who knows exactly what we need. this then is how you should pray our father in heaven how it would be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for if you forgive men when they sin against you your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their sins your father will not forgive your sins this ends the reading of god's holy word today we look at the the last aspect of the lord's prayer this is the fourth week we've been looking at it and today we're going to talk about how god answers prayer and to many people this is the whole point

of prayer. The whole point of prayer is, how do you get God to give you things? How do you make application for your needs? In a place like New York, we're so used to applications. All sorts of application procedures, very lengthy, and all sorts of audition procedures. And so we say, all right, prayer is one. How do I do it? How do I get God? Isn't that the main point? How do I get God to give me what I need? Now, I hope up to now, that you have realized that we have made clear that that's not the point of prayer. The point of prayer is not at all to get God

to give you what you need, and if you think that is the main point of prayer, you will get very little. That's the irony of prayer. Prayer is very effective for those people who don't come into it, hoping that it will necessarily be primarily a way that you get God to give you things.

The prayer of a righteous man availeth much, and the prayer of a person who is not out necessarily to use prayer to get God to gimmee things, that's not the point. We've said the point of prayer is to get the heart back into its true orbit. To center on God, to worship and glorify and center on God, that's what prayer is. And we've said, for example, if the moon would leave its true orbit, it would begin to crash and burn and hit things, and therefore if the heart leaves its true orbit, of centering everything on God, the same thing happens only spiritually and cosmically. We crash and we burn. And we said that, therefore, in prayer, we make God central again. That's the point

of prayer. And when we say the point of prayer is to return us to our true orbit, we do not mean that in prayer we simply affirm that God is central, or we just say that God is central, but in prayer you actually make him central. That's the point. That's the hard work of prayer. In other words, for example, in prayer, first of all, you make him central in your thinking by recollecting and remembering who he is and what he's done. And then you make him central in your feeling by rejoicing and drawing the sweetness out of what he is and what he's done.

And then lastly, you begin to make him central in your planning by rethinking all of your understanding about your problems and your needs in light of who he is and what he's done. Hear that? The last thing you do is you begin to plan your life out by rethinking all about your needs and all about your wants and all about your problems in light of who he is and what he's done.

And so there's a movement in the Lord's Prayer from adoration, we've said, and centering everything on God. And then secondly, we were able to say, give us this day our daily bread. Or put it this way. Jesus says, and let me paraphrase in the Lord's prayer, after you are done, centering your heart and mind on the fatherhood of God and his heavenly power, and then submitting completely to his royal lordship by saying, thy will be done. Then you can go and start asking for your daily bread and for protection and for provision. That's what Jesus is saying.

all of the adoration part of the Lord's prayer comes out to this climax. Thy will be done. And Jesus says you may not do an in-run around that. You may not go to your daily bread. You may not start asking about your specific needs until you've brought all of that to a climax and you're able to say to God,

I submit right now to your lordship in every disposal of your will. Then you may go and talk about the provision. So there's an order here. and the order must be obeyed, the order must be honored, or you rip up the fabric of prayer, first accepting, thy will be done, then asking, first accepting, submitting, seeing his loving purposes and everything, submitting to every disposal of his will, accepting thy will be done, and then asking, and that's the order, and that's how we're going to look at how Jesus Christ says you can make

application to God. First accepting, then asking. Look, let's apply it. Number one, accepting. What does it mean to pray, thy will be done? You can't get to give us this day or daily bread. You can't get to deliver us from evil. You can't start praying for the things you want and for protection from the things that you fear until you first hit, thy will be done. What does it mean to pray that? Well, let me give you two case studies. First case study is Paul. And Paul is a terrific case study. If you look up every place that Paul prays for his friends,

you will find something absolutely remarkable. In the book of Philippians, he prays in chapter one. In the book of Colossians, he praised in chapter one. In the book of Ephesians, he praised in chapter one and chapter three. So you have four prayers. Go look and see how he prays for his friends. And you will see a surprising absence of any prayer for relief from troubles, for healing, for overcoming problems, for happiness.

You don't see him praying for that. Instead, he prays in the greatest detail. He prays for spiritual insight and an overwhelming sense of the grandeur and glory of God and a transforming vivid faith. That's what he wants more than anything else for his friend. and he leaves out all the other things that surely must have been plaguing them. He doesn't even mention them. Why?

Here's why. We're all obsessed with this idea that the main reason we're unhappy is because of things outside of us. That is a presupposition. That is a premise. That is an unconscious assumption. That the main reason we are unhappy is because of certain conditions on the outside of us that are making us unhappy. And therefore, we become obsessed with changing those conditions,

and everything will be fine if that happens. That's not true, though. Because Paul and Jesus, Jesus right here, and Paul and his prayers are constantly saying what you really need is for a change inside. You need above everything else. Your real problem is a lack of enjoying God, A lack of love for God, a lack of understanding God.

Your real problems come from an internal condition, not an external condition. Now, you know, what's interesting to me is that there's a particular school of therapy, of counseling. And some of you, I'm sure, are aware of professionally. You might use it, and some of you may have been used on you, or you may have read about it. it's an area called cognitive therapy. And in cognitive therapy, this is a very helpful insight, cognitive therapy will come to a person and say, the reason that you're unhappy is not because of things outside of you,

but because of your response to those things. And so, for example, a cognitive therapist will talk to Mr. Jones, and Mr. Jones says, I have an ulcer, and the reason I have an ulcer is my wife. And you sit down, a good cognitive therapist will say, well, no wonder you feel so helpless and hopeless, because you can't change your wife, and that's why you have an ulcer. But that's not true, Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones, I know another man named Mr. Smith. And Mr. Smith has a wife just like your wife and has a temperament just like your temperament, and therefore you kind of rub each other wrong all in the same way. But Mr. Smith forgives his wife, and he doesn't have an ulcer. And so the cognitive therapist would say, don't you see that the cause of the ulcer is not your wife, but your response to your wife?

The cause of the ulcer is not your external circumstance, but your internal response. Now, that's what a good cognitive therapist will do, and it's actually pretty effective. It's a bit of a mental trick in some ways, but it's helpful. But there's a spiritual application of that. That's a mirror, I think, just a dim reflection of what Paul is saying, what Jesus Christ is saying right here. The reason that they're always praying in a certain way for the inside is because we also are obsessed with what we think is really making us unhappy on the outside. Paul knows that our real problem is we do not know enough about the glory of God

and the high privileges that are ours in Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian, why are you so miserable? Maybe you're anxious. The reason you're anxious is because you don't know enough about the goodness and power of God. You may know it intellectually, but it's not something that thrills you. It's not something that affects you. It's not something that you're grasping, see. And Paul knows that it's not that threatening situation that's making you miserable.

It's your inability to focus on God. Or give another example, why are you depressed? In every case when I'm depressed, I know it's because there's something I want more, something I value more than the inheritance I have as a Christian. Let me bring this down to earth. Imagine walking up to a child who's six years old. And this child's truck is broken. Very important thing in his life.

And you come up and he's crying and you say, hey, honey, I have something to tell you. Let me tell you, I just got this in the mail. Let me tell you, you have just inherited $20 million. An uncle died and left you $20 million, and now look what you've got. Who cares about the truck? And what does a six-year-old do?

The six-year-old say, oh, $20 million. Who cares about the truck? No, that's not what a six-year-old does. He's a child. A six-year-old doesn't have the cognitive. ability to understand that. And all the six-year-old does is say, who cares about $20 million,

I don't have my truck. And I won't be happy until I get a new truck. And of course, when you look at the child, you know that the real problem with a child is not the truck or a lack of a truck. The real problem is this child does not realize his true condition. And if he had the mental apparatus,

if he had the cognitive development, if he was capable of the formal logical operations or whatever it is that it takes for that child to be able to grasp what $20 million will mean to him and how much more important it is than that truck. If he had that, he'd be fine. If he realized his condition, if he had a perspective, right? A realistic perspective. If he was in touch with reality, but a child is not.

And yet, my dear friends, Are there any of you who have received Christ as Savior and you know you've been adopted into the kingdom and you know you're a partaker of the divine nature and you know you're going to rule and reign with him forever and yet your financial problem or relationship problem is absolutely and utterly destroying your happiness? And you look and say, what good is it to be a Christian?

Or you don't maybe admit that consciously but unconsciously it's working down there. You are in the exact same condition as that six-year-old child, and we'll say this, Paul was right. Jesus was right. It's not having that financial thing work out or that relationship thing work out. It's that you don't realize your condition.

You don't realize who you are and what you've got in him. And that's why Paul is constantly praying for your inner man to be strengthened so you may grasp the heights and the width and the breath and the depth and be filled with all the fullness of God. Paul knows, Jesus knows, even Shakespeare know, because he had Julius Caesar say, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars.

It's in ourselves. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our external circumstances. You know, don't run off to give us this day or daily bread until you've dealt with the fact of who God is to you. Now, that's Paul's case study, but let me give you another case study. prayers are a perfect case of praying thy will be done, praying, get into God, and then, then and then only can you start talking about daily bread. Let me give you another case. The ultimate case study of someone who prayed thy will be done is who? Jesus.

Remember the context. Remember what had happened, what happened to Jesus before he prayed thy will be done. Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gisemone, and what was he faced? there. Jesus Christ was facing punishment. He was about to be sacrificed. He was about to be punished for our sin. What is the punishment for sin in the Bible? What's the Bible always say? Let me give you just a brief footnote here. Second Thessalonians 3 verse 8 says the penalty for sin is very natural. It's to be cut off from God. But do you know what that means? We were built for God, and we only are able to have any kind of physical and emotional and spiritual coherence if God is supporting us. It's like we have got to have the sun in order for the earth to have any

life on here at all. And even when the earth is turned away from the sun, so we don't actually see the sun, we all know that if the sun wasn't there, still supporting us through its power and its radiation, even in the nighttime, even when we can't see it, even when we're not in direct contact with it, we'd still be, we're still being upheld, right? By the sun. In the same way, even people who are fleeing from God in this life, even people that are living a life of self-mastery, even people that say they don't believe in God, they are being upheld by God. That's what the Bible says. But to be banished from God means that no longer does God give you any support for you humanity or your life. And it means to go into complete and utter darkness. It means

to come to the place where you no longer are able to function as a human being. And the illustration is it's to become totaled as a human being to be cut off from God. You know, when a car is totaled, it doesn't cease to exist. It's there, but it can't function any longer as a car. When a human being is totaled, you're still in existence, but you can't love. You can't think. You can't experience peace or joy or anything. You can't function.

You can't love or receive love. You're totaled. To be cut off from God, that's what happens. And in the Garden of Gessimony, Jesus began to experience God's rejection, that he was going to have to experience for our sake. Substitute for us. Take our punishment. As he sat down and began to pray, he began to taste it. God began to give it to him.

And he began to sweat blood out of his pores. And you know, when he began to sweat blood, that shows us something. because if the very anticipation and foretaste of this incredible pain and agony was so difficult, if just the foretaste of it, was so difficult as to make the eternal son of God's sweat blood out of his pores, what must the actual experience of it have been like? We don't know. But in the face of that, Jesus Christ looks up to the Father, and says, Father, I would like out of this. Father, I'm beginning to taste the cup. I'm in shock. I'm amazed at what this is going to be like. And if there's some way out of it,

I want out of it. But then he immediately says, nevertheless, and it's very clear, that word nevertheless shows that there's a premise that Jesus Christ is operating on. It's something that was already a given. Nevertheless, as we've always had it, not my will but thine be done. And you know what Jesus is saying? He's saying, Father, I would like you to get me out of this. But I also know that if it's not possible, I know that you will bring inestimable blessing and goodness out of this. Not my will but thine be done. What did it cost Jesus to say not thy, my will but thine be done? What did it cost him? We'll never know. But I do know this, and this is what's staggering, in Jesus' case, Jesus was facing mind-blowing

horror. Nobody in this room will ever come anywhere close to that. No human being has ever been anywhere near that. Nobody else ever paid such an incredible dear price, nor ever will pay such an incredible price to say, thy will be done. And yet, in Jesus' case, who paid the greatest price of all to say it, it was worth it. It's hard to believe, but it was worth it. Because those several hours of absolutely staggering and mind-blowing pain resulted in a glorious deliverance in a new redeemed world that will last forever. That's what it cost Jesus Christ to say, Thy will be done.

Now somebody says, so what? That's very interesting and that's very moving, but I'm not Jesus. If you're trying to tell me I've got to turn around and look at my problems in the face and say, not my will but thine be done, I'm not Jesus. Jesus could do that. He was the son of God. I'm not Jesus. Well, listen, I know that. And nobody's ever going to ask you to do exactly what Jesus did. I just said that. But at a much lower level, no one can duplicate what Jesus said, but at a much lower level you can imitate it. And it is possible. Some years ago, a man named George Matheson, about 100 years ago, a man named George Matheson, a Christian,

married, and while he was engaged, he went blind, permanently blind. And not only did he have to face a lifetime of darkness, but in the wake of that, his fiancé broke off the engagement. And so he knew he was now relegated not only, and not only to a lifetime of darkness, but a lifetime of loneliness. You know, you'd think one of those or the other of those would be possible, but together, man, that is a crushing burden. What did he do with it? He wrote a hymn. I printed part of the hymn in the very beginning of the bulletin.

But what's so fascinating about the hymn is it shows you an individual, yes, a mortal, who prayed thy will be done in stages. And you can see what it means to pray thy will be done. He breaks it down for you. First of all, he says, I give you back the life I owe. Now, right there, we begin to see one of the big differences between Jesus Christ and me. You know what? Jesus Christ was the only person who, when he said, thy will be done.

He was the only person who, when he took suffering, didn't deserve it. He's the only one that could have actually said, I don't owe anybody this. You see, when Jesus was sitting there in the Garden of Gassimini, looking at the cup that he was about to drink, you know what he could have said? With absolute justice, he could have said, why should I? why should I leave all my glory and love in heaven to come to earth and why should I take in this burning agony into my breast for these people who don't appreciate what I'm doing, who don't deserve what I'm doing, and will never repay me for what I'm doing? I don't owe them anything. And he had every right to say that, but instead he turned around and he said, Father, for your sake and for their sake, if you want me to, I'll take the cup. And what happens at this point is that Jesus Christ says, Thy will be done when he doesn't owe it.

But none of us are like that, and George Matheson realized that George Matheson was sitting here in blindness, in loneliness, and he said, all I know is this. I better never say I don't deserve what I'm getting. I owe you everything, he says to God. everything I have that's better than hell is just sheer mercy. Every part of every day, every bird I hear, you know, every day I've got is just your mercy. I owe you everything. So how dare I complain?

And so the first thing George Matheson did to say, Thy will be done, was he reminded himself, if God gave me what I deserved, I'd be a goner. We all chase things like success, true love, or the perfect life, good things that can easily become ultimate things. When we put our faith in them, deep down, we know they can't satisfy our deepest longings. The truth is that we've made lesser gods of good things, things that can't give us what we really need. In his book, Counterfeit Gods, the empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters, Tim Keller shows us how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the truth about societal ideals and our own hearts, and shows us that there is only one God

who can wholly satisfy our desires. This month, we'll send you counterfeit gods as our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. You can request your copy at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. I give you back the life I owe. Secondly, he says, all I have to do is find the second one.

Then he starts talking about a love that will not let me go. that's amazing the second thing he decides to do is after he says i owe you my life then the second thing he says is i am not just knuckling under to your strength there's a lot of people who think to pray thy will be done simply means okay what choice have i got i knuckle under to your will because what else can i do that's resignation that is not acceptance And what George Matheson does right here is he says, I see everything that you do in my life as part of your loving purposes. I see that you are a loving God,

and I see it's the only love that will not reject me, even if I'm blind, even if I go deaf, even if no matter what happens to me, I will build my life on the only love that I know will last. And then thirdly, he says this, I lay in the dust, life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be. And the third thing he realizes, in praying thy will be done, third thing he does is he says, I'm taking life's glory and I lay it in the dust, dead.

Now what does that mean? What he's talking about is the relationships, the fame, the money, the status, the popularity, the recognition, all the things that you desperately want, that I desperately want, want, and that he desperately wanted, and that God seemed to be just pulling away. And what he does is he says, no, instead of grabbing onto these things, I lay them in the dust. And he says, their blossoms red, life that shall endless be. Like Jesus Christ, George Matheson decided not to scream and yell, but to say, Lord, if I have to give these things up, if I have to lay these things down the dust, all I know is that somehow you will work something out of them that would not

have happened if I hadn't given them to you. Somehow, if I give these things to you, you'll bring a miracle out of it. You'll bring redemption out of it like you did out of Jesus when he laid his life down. Somehow I know that if I die, there'll be a resurrection. Somehow, I realize that if I lay life's glory down in the dust, it will blossom. And only then will it blossom. My desire for recognition, my desire for the money, my desire for the money, my desire for the popularity, my desire for these things, that you seem to be pulling out from under me, I say, thy will be done, I lay them down there, I give it to you. I don't scream any more about my suffering, I give you my suffering, and I know you'll

transform it. And in George Matheson's case, what happened was he became a heart much deeper, much more sensitive, much more loving, much more wise than it ever would have been, and it touched many people through ministry. That was his case. What's your case? You know, everybody, every one of us, has got these cups. Little cups.

They're not like Jesus' cup. Nobody here will be asked to take Jesus cup and pray thy will be done in front of that. But what I want to know is how you're handling your little cups. And some of you are right, my friends here, I've got to move on to asking. I've got to get done with accepting here. Friends, listen. Some of you are saying, if he just told me why, if I just knew why, it would be all right. If I just knew that, and don't you see that if you knew why, it wouldn't be submission

anymore, it wouldn't be obedience anymore? Do you know if he told you why, then you'd say, oh, now I see why, and you would move on in and you'd stay in control of your life, and you'd stay your own little king. Suffering in your life will either make you, like George Matheson, you can either give it to God, submit to it, see his loving purposes in it, give it to him willingly, If you do that, suffering will make you into someone far greater than you are now, or else it will turn you into something far more shriveled and angry and bitter and sad than you are now, but it will not keep you the same.

Any cup that comes into your life will either make you a far greater or far worse person. It will not keep you the same. Do you see where you are? And the power of the cross in the life of the Christian is not exemption from suffering, but the ability to have it transformed into something that will change you and change all the people around you if you give God the suffering. If you say, Thigh will be done, oh love that will not let me go, I lay in the dust, lights glory dead. And there expect to see it blossom red with life that shall endless be. How are you doing? At praying thy will be done. You say, I can't do it? Well, look at Jesus.

look at him he was down there and you have to say look here's jesus christ who didn't deserve what he went through and look under those circumstances he trusted his sovereign father to bring good out of it if it happened to him i can do it too if he suffered like that for me so much i can suffer my little bit for him go to him say thy will be done now the second thing as we said is if you accept you can go and ask if you say thy will be done done, you can go and ask. And the Bible, listen, at this point, if you believe that the Lord's prayer is encouraging passivity, you're all wrong. See, here's Jesus telling you, say thy will be done. Submit to whatever I give you. And a lot of people would say, hey, that means be passive. Just sit

back and say, okay, hit me again. I'm still breathing. You know, Lord, that's what prayer is. You just come and say, Lord, I don't care. I don't care. Just do it. You know, it doesn't matter to me. everything will be fine with me. As soon as you think that Jesus is saying that prayer should be a passive thing, he turns right around and says, give us this day, they are daily bread. That means anything, no matter how basic, no matter how specific, no matter how detailed, be direct, go after him constantly, ask for everything. You see, the Bible teaches, the Bible teaches, God says, if you pray to me, I will give you astonishing things. I will give you mind-numbing things.

I will do all kinds of things for you. You've got the promise in Luke where it says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you. You've got Isaiah 65, it says, before they ask, I will answer. Before they ask, I will answer. That's a picture of God like a father running up

with a present already in his hand, behind his back. Just can't wait for his kid to ask him for something. It's an amazing statement. And what God actually is doing in the Bible is he says prayer is a way to rebel against the status quo. There's this fascinating place in John Chapter 14, where Jesus says this, Anyone who has faith in me will do what I am doing,

and he will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You know what kind of claim that is? He is saying, I'm going to the Father, and I'm going to sit down at the right hand, and I'm going to begin to spread his kingdom. God hates oppression and poverty. God hates pain and suffering. God hates conflict and strife. And I'm going to spread the kingdom through my power and my word and my spirit. And I want to spread the kingdom. I want to release my kingdom power into the world through your prayers. You see things that you know God hates. You see things of the consequence of evil and sin. God's Jesus Christ's power in history

is released through your prayers. That's the setup. However, having said that, you have to remember that this incredible powerful thing called prayer is being put into the hands of children. Our father, who aren't in heaven, Jesus is teaching us, reminding us that we are children. And whenever you put a weapon like that in the hands of children, any very, very wise father will put on it a safety catch. And you know what the safety catch is? The safety catch is God will never give you something you ask for that's bad for you. Let me give you an example. Another children's example.

Why? Why? Because prayer is a family issue. God, Jesus Christ demands that when you pray, you go to him as father. Imagine that you see a child, you're a parent, and you come to see a child, and the child wants to start to light some firecrackers, and you say, hey, this is dangerous. I've seen children whose hands have been blown off with firecrackers. We're not going to do it. But I understand what your problem is. You're bored. And you're, and it's a, you know, you don't have anything else to do. And if you just forget the firecrackers, come with me, and I can take you someplace that'll be so great. So much more fun than the firecrackers and safe too. And what does the child say?

I want my firecrackers, or I don't want to go anywhere. Now, what's the principle? Number one, a good parent, when the child is asking for something that is bad for him or her, a good parent will not give the item, but will respond to the need. You see, when the child asked for firecrackers, you realize what the child is really saying is, I'm bored, I'm unhappy, I want to do something, I want to have fun. And so what you say is, no, not that, honey, but I'm going to give you what you really are after. I'm going to, I will not give you the item, but I will respond to the need.

The Bible promises, in a sense, that there's no such thing as unanswered prayer. There's places where Jesus says, anything you ask for in my name, I will give to you. How does that jive? Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7 says that Jesus Christ poured out his heart to God with strong crying and tears in the Garden of Gassimony

and he was heard for his reverent submission the first time I read that verse I said, you're kidding. What do you mean he was heard? What do you mean he was answered? It seems to me that Garden of Gassumny you have a perfect example of unanswered prayer

but there's another sense in which no. No. When you ask for something that's bad for you, what God denies you in kind, he will give you in value. If you ask for $1,000 in gold bullion and he gives you $1,000 in diamonds, he hasn't really not answered your prayer. It is absolutely critical to see that. If you ask God for something and you ask for the wrong thing,

he will not give it to you, but he'll always respond to the need. And so in that sense, he'll answer it. And that is very important to see, extremely. See, in some cases, it's easy to see how that works. You know, there was a place in my life in which, before I met Kathy, I was wrestling and struggling in prayer trying to get God to let me marry somebody else. And he turned that down. And it's easy.

That's a simple one. You say, ah, it's so easy to see how the safety catch work there. It's so easy to see that he was responding to my knee, but not giving me the item. It's not nearly as easy to see in other situations. But that's the point. and that's what the safety catch is. Do you believe that? I don't know where you're coming from,

but it may be right now there's things going on in your life like that. Why doesn't God answer your heartfelt prayer? This isn't the right time, and it may never be the right time. But I'll tell you this much. You're a child, he's a father.

That's the whole issue of prayer. And I know this, and you know this, have you ever been around children. Children almost every day ask for things. Almost every hour ask for things that are wrong for them. Almost every hour, it's the nature of being children. And when you say no, they've got two possible things they can do. They're not going to understand. They don't have the wisdom. They don't have the ability to understand why not. They can either say, all right, all I know is that my dad loves me and that when I obey him, generally it works out, and so I'll trust him. Or the child can say,

get angry and stamp off and become cold, and then the Father can't even respond to the need. And I want to know right now is what you're doing. How are you responding? Because I know everybody in this room. I know everybody in this room. You say, you've never met me. You're made of the same stuff I'm made of.

And I know you've been disappointed. And I know that there are prayers, even if you're not a believer, even if you don't even know you believe in God, you've prayed. And things have been turned down. and I want to know how you're responding. Are you responding the first way, saying, I know he's a father and I trust him, or are you responding the second way?

Don't you see why some of you are not going flat out for God because underneath you're demanding an explanation? And you're saying, until I know why, until I get that explanation, how can anybody expect me to be flat out for God? But that's insolent, it's unfair, and ultimately it's self-destructive. You know which kind of children

are the closest to the father's heart? it's the ones who know their children. It's the ones who don't insist they know at all. It's the ones who say, hey, I'm just a kid, so I'll trust you. Because they're not kids anymore. They're on their way to adulthood. And in some situations, you're going to have to say that. You're going to have to say, Father, thy will, Father, give us this day or daily bread.

But I know that if I don't get the item I ask for, I don't expect the next explanation, because I know how crazy it is to try to give a lecture on electricity to a two-year-old who I'm trying to pull away from the outlet. He can't understand. I can't understand. I take away my right for an explanation, and I trust you, and that's the kind of child that's closest to the father's heart. Let me close with this little illustration. How do you know if this is, if prayer is going to work in your life? You see, if you accept, if you say thy will be done, the Bible then says then go to God and ask for all kinds of things and God loves to pour out all kinds of stuff on the hearts of people

who start thy will be done and then come and say look at all my needs God will do all kinds of things he'll change your life he'll change the people around you he releases his power out into history through your prayer if first you put your heart in this condition of saying thy will be done I'm a child you're the father There was an unhappy man named Jacob. We're told about him in the book of Genesis. Jacob wrestled with God all of his life.

He was always in conflict with people. Always. He had a fight with Esau to get his father's love, and he didn't get it. He had a fight with his uncle to get the wife he wanted. He had a fight for his career. He was always in conflict. One night, all alone, out in the desert, pitch darkness, a stranger appears and begins to wrestle with Jacob.

And they wrestle for hours. And as time goes on, Jacob begins to realize this is more than just mortal combat. He begins to realize this is the meaning of his life. He begins to realize that all of his life he's been angry at God. All of his life, he has felt God has not given him the blessing he deserved. He had a scheme and struggle to get the wife he wanted. He had a scheme and struggle to get the career he wanted. And he still wasn't happy.

God never gave him what he deserved. And now Jacob begins to realize he begins to suspect that this one that he's wrestling with is the angel of the Lord, God in human form. And he says, incredible, my chance to pin God, my chance to finally get him where he has. to give me what I deserve. And so he wrestles with every fiber of his being and more. And yet just before daybreak, all of a sudden, the stranger shows who he really is.

And he also shows how much strength he's really got. He reaches over and just touches Jacob's thigh, and his entire leg immediately is paralyzed and goes totally lame. That's the kind of power. Obviously, the stranger, had been repressing this incredible power. And that battles over. And Jacob realizes he lost, and all of a sudden something happens and snaps in Jacob, and his life turns around.

He begins to realize that his approach is doomed. He'd been trying to demand God, give me what I deserve. He'd been trying to wrestle with God out of strength. And suddenly he realized that would never work. And he changes. He turns around, and he says, if I cannot prevail through strength, I'll prevail through weakness. So lame, hurting, blinded by tears, he holds on to God, and he won't let him go.

And the day's coming up. The dawn is coming. And the stranger turns and says, let me go. It's almost daybreak, and you cannot see my face. And both the stranger and Jacob know that nobody can look on the face of God and live. And Jacob says, I don't care. I won't let you go until you bless me. And you know what Jacob wanted.

What is the blessing? The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. And what Jacob was saying is, I just want you. I just want to see your face. I just want you.

And God looks at him and says, You've been called Jacob up to now, but now you'll be called Israel. Because you wrestled with God and man, and you overcame, you triumphed. And that's incredible. What happened was Jacob was born again at that moment.

Because Jacob finally realized, after all this time, that the only way to win was to surrender, to say, thy will be done, and to say, all I want is you. The moment that Jacob discovered, what I hope you will discover, and that is, God is his own happy ending. God is the answer to all the prayers. To say, all I want is your presence. All I want is a relationship with you. and everything else I can handle. And the minute that Jacob lost, he won.

The minute he surrendered, he finally triumphed. Finally, God turned and says, Jacob, I've been waiting for this for a long time. And it was only through his gentle wrestling that God actually accomplished it in Jacob's life. And you know, the reason that can happen to you and me is because Jesus Christ was our real champion, and he went off and wrestled with our real problem,

and it wasn't us, and it wasn't God. The real problem is sin and evil. And Jesus Christ triumphed on the cross because, like Jacob, he lost. He submitted to the Father. He said, thy will be done. And in that loss, in that weakness, he triumphed. And he took the punishment for our sin. Justice was satisfied.

We could be saved. Do you know the power of prayer? The power of prayer is that if you would begin to pray the way Jesus says so, there could be all kinds of things going on in your life. Tremendous things happening in your life. What's holding you back? Thomas Watson says, we more readily,

Jesus Christ more readily went to add cruxom to the cross than we go to the throne of grace. Go to him. But secondly, do you know the sweet helplessness of prayer? Do you know what it's like to say, Thy will be done? All I care for is to see your face. Some of you are walking lame,

and you still don't get it, do you? what Jesus Christ is saying is I love you surrender to me lay down your arms humble yourself under my mighty hand and you'll be exalted the way to up is down the way to be free is to submit the way to power is to serve

the way to lose your life is to find it the way to find your life is to lose it and the way to the crown is by the cross. Let's pray. Our Father, all we ask is that you would show us that we cannot take an end, run, around, thy will be done. Teach us to say, thy will be done, so that then you can pour down all kinds of daily bread on us.

That's all we ask. we ask, Father, every single person in this room has little cups that we're just having trouble handling. Every person in this room is struggling to pray, thy will be done. For some of us, the moment that we finally pray, thy will be done, we will be converted and brought into your family, and for the first time we'll receive Christ's Savior, and for the first time we'll give our lives to you, and for the first time, we'll know you personally. But for some of the rest of us, we've been Christians a long time, but your grace is being locked in our lives because we will not say thy will be done. Father, show us, remind us that the

way up is down and the way to find our life is to lose it. In your service, we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel and Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelonlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1990. 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.

Thank you.