Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Work and Family

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

The first three chapters of Ephesians has a lot of heavy theology about what it means to be a Christian and who we are in Christ. Then, it suddenly gets incredibly practical—and it’s not actually a different subject.  All of the theology has an effect on how we live in our practical lives. Christ really is Lord of every area of life. Two of those areas are now laid out for us: work and family.  We’re going to look now at 1) Jesus and your work, 2) Jesus and your family, and 3) Jesus and your life. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 22, 2012. Series: A Study of Ephesians: Who is the Church? Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-9. 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.

Are you struggling to find meaning and purpose in your work? We spend most of our lives at our jobs, but our work can often be the area where we feel the most frustration and futility in our lives. Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller helps us understand how the Gospel frees us to have hope and joy in our vocations. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly

newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other great gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. Tonight's scripture comes from the book of Ephesians, chapter six verses 1 through 9. Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor your Father and Mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training

and instruction of the Lord. Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him. This is the word of the Lord. We keep on going through the book of Ephesians and it's helpful to remember that in the beginning the first three chapters of Ephesians, there's all this heavy doctrine, all this heavy theology about what it means to be a Christian and who we are in Christ,

and grace and cross and redemption and union with Christ and so on. But then when you get the chapters four, five, and six, suddenly it gets incredibly practical and it's not actually a different subject. Paul is showing us throughout this book what it means to be the church, what it means to be a Christian. And what it means to be a Christian is to be basically

theologically driven. It means theology, doctrine, stuff about the Trinity and about the cross and about the Atonement and about grace and about the cross and about the Atonement and about grace and about redemption and all those things have an effect on how we live in every area of our practical lives. Two of those areas are now laid out for us. Work and family. And even though it's actually in some ways as you will see a bit of a difficulty for me to have to cover all this in one

One sermon on the other hand It's helpful to look at the big picture and to see how Christ really is Lord of every area of life So let's take a look at this under these three headings Jesus and your work Jesus and your family Jesus and your life Jesus and your work, Jesus in your family, Jesus in your life. Jesus in your work, your family, your life. First, Jesus in your work. Now, we're looking at this section from verses five to nine.

And here Paul is laying out principles for your work life. And right away, we have to do something. I'm gonna try to keep it to a couple minutes. But right away the very fact that Paul says, slaves obey your masters. You know, masters don't misuse your slaves. We can't get paths that right away. We say, wait a minute, why in the world weren't the early Christians immediately abolishing slavery? And one of the things you have to remember before we can get into, the principles is a couple of things.

First of all, it's impossible for us today to read Paul talking to slaves in the first century Roman Empire Ephesus without thinking they were the same as the slaves in America in the 18th, 19th centuries. And we have to keep in mind the differences that are enormous here, right away. The Yale Anchor Bible Dictionary, which is a scholarly dictionary by historians and scholars of ancient history, points something out. It says, it's very hard for us today, Americans today, and any modern people to read what the Bible says here and think Paul's talking to people who are in

the same condition as the slaves were in America. It's not true. A couple things you need to know. Slavery in Roman Empire was not based on race at all. Number one. Number two, it was not lifetime. That the vast majority of slaves were only slaves until they were 30 years old, and after that they were not. And number three, and as a quote from the Yale Anchor Bible dictionary, despite the legal distinction, as a quote, despite the legal distinction between owners and slaves, yes, slaves couldn't quit. They couldn't make demands.

You know, they couldn't quit. They couldn't make demands. You know, they couldn't, they couldn't negotiate for salary, you know what? Despite those clear legal distinctions between owners and slaves, persons in slavery did not constitute a different social or economic class. Slave social status, their lifestyle, their economic opportunities, even their education, were tied to the status of the respective masters. And they developed no recognizable consciousness of being a group or of suffering a common plate. And for this reason, this is still quoting,

any call like slaves of the world unite would have fallen on completely deaf ears in ancient times. In fact, rather than look for work each day without any certainty, many people in those days sold themselves into slavery to gain job security. Now, as soon as you hear that, you say, that's not the slavery I'm thinking about right. That's right. It wasn't great, but it wasn't until it became the virulent,

race-based, violent, brutal lifetime slavery that happened in the Caribbean and the New World in the 18th, 19th century, that Christians rose up and said it's got to be abolished. Got that? In fact, actually years ago, a friend of mine was doing a PhD in US history at Yale, and in his seminar with his advisors, his advisor said that historians don't think the way most people do, we all knew that, is as most people say, how could those people in the past

have ever put up with this horrible thing? And they said, no, the historian says, why, since every society, in every culture, in every century, throughout all of human history, had always accepted slavery in some form, where did the idea come from? Where in the world did the idea come from? That it was wrong. Where did that come from?

Who would have ever thought of that? And I remember my friend who was, you know was the student, he was a believer, and his advisors were not Christian believers, but they said, we know where it came from. It came from the evangelicals, the Quakers, and some Catholics who got it out of the Bible. That's where it came from. So, having said all that, can we from now on think about bosses and employees, as we see what Paul is saying here, and here's what he says, two things that are really, really radical about work, really radical. And the two things are, work is all divine calling and work requires all of your heart.

It's all divine calling and requires all of your heart. It's all divine calling and it requires all of your heart. Look. Oh. Oh. Let me moderate my distance to the mic. First of all, what do I mean when I say, it's all a divine calling? What you have here in this part of Ephesians,

because we've been going through it, it talks about relationships between your spouse, then with children, now with servants and so forth. This was actually typical in ancient times. Often in the Greco-Roman world, writers would write manuals. They were called household codes. Household codes. And they were manuals for the head of the estate, the father,

and how you related to your spouse, how you related to your children, how you related to your servants, how you related to your business associates. It was a way of regulating the relationships. One of the things that's so striking in all that scholars point this out is that when Christians wrote household codes, they actually addressed the slaves, the servants. They addressed them. And the pagans never addressed them. Why?

Because they weren't responsible agents. They just did what they were told. But Paul treats them like people. Secondly, he says that even though there are domestic servants here, generally he's rewriting too, even though they do so called menial jobs, they are. It says, serve wholeheartedly, he says, down here, as if you were serving the Lord, not men. Serving the Lord. If you and I, either of us, either us, either, either us, went into a book table, a place, and saw a book that said, call to serve the Lord. That was the title.

Call to serve the Lord. What would you think it was about? You'd probably think it was about somebody who left their regular job and went into ministry or mission, right? And you know why you and I would probably think that? Because we don't have a biblical view of work. That's supposed to be a startling statement. It is a startling statement. As soon as you and I think of serving the Lord, call to serve the Lord. Right away we say, that means it doesn't mean farming. It doesn't mean pushing a broom. It doesn't mean just accounting and adding up numbers. It means, no, you're wrong. Because here's what Paul is saying.

He's talking to domestic servants. He's talking to people who did push a broom. And he said, I don't want you to think of this. Any other way. This is a calling from God. You have been called to serve God. You say, how could that be? Martin Luther, nobody does a better job at this

than Martin Luther. If you find Martin Luther's exposition of the 10 of the Lord's Prayer, when he gets to the place where it says, pray, give us this day our daily bread. Luther says, the Bible says, we should pray to God, please feed us. Psalm 145 says that God feeds all his creatures. And when we do have bread and milk in front of us, we thank God for feeding us. But Luther says, how did you get that bread and that milk?

How did God feed you? Did he do it directly? Did it just appear? No. He says, the farmer and the milk made it. Everybody know what a milk made it was. And the people who transported it and the grocers, oh, such menial tasks.

And yet, basically, they are doing God's work. God feeds us. But instead of doing it directly, he delegates it to the farmers and to the milkman and to the transport and to the grocer. The so-called menial people are doing God's work because it's God's work to feed us. Or then there's another place where Martin Luther is exposition of Psalm 147, very interesting. And Psalm 147, verse 13 says, that God strengthens the bars of the gates of your city. You know, cities had walls. And if you were a...if you had a secure city, the bars of the gates were strong,

and there was good order, and there was not crime, and there wasn't invasion and so forth. God strengthens the bars of your city. And then Martin Luther says, that's right. God takes care of us. It says that in the psalm. How does he do it? Does he do it directly?

Now I wish he did. I wish he just sent angels. Would it be great? New York City completely guarded by angels. You wouldn't need police, you wouldn't need laws, you wouldn't need anything. God would just take care of everything. Except Luther says, that's not how God does it. The way he takes that makes a city secure as he says, good laws from good legislatures. Good laws upheld by good lawyers. Security by police and military. Good governance from magistrates and managers and rulers. In other words, God takes care of us through the work of other people.

All work is God's way of meeting your needs and giving you life through the work of other people. And therefore, all work that's not evil. All work that actually is of help, whether it's born, whether it's menial. Let's go, listen, don't forget, he's talking to domestic servants here. I met Kathy and I years ago, had a course that got to know a woman who was a teacher at

our seminary called Elizabeth Elliott, and she used to say, look at the beginning of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1 and 2, what do we see? We see God bringing order out of chaos. That's what he does. The spirit of God moves across the face of the waters, darkness was on the face of the deep, and then it was light God bringing order out of chaos. Now, he said then she says think of cleaning your house wiping off the counters

dusting Mopping the floors think of that now you might do it yourself or you might pay somebody else to do it But if nobody does that work, you're gonna die if Nobody cleans your house. you're going to die. And when you clean your house, you're reflecting God. You're bringing order out of chaos. And all work does. There is no medial work. There are no small people.

There is no little bits of, you know, unimportant work. See that? All work is a calling of God. All work is actually God's work. All work is God's way of meeting needs and bringing life to you through the work of others. Now you know what that means? We got to move on. This is one of my problems with this sermon. There's too many things to say, but I got to tell you one thing. If this is true, I'm going to give you two applications. Number one is in New York, we are surrounded by people pushing brooms. We're surrounded by people

who are doing cleaning. We're surrounded by dormant, concierges, we're surrounded by drivers and people like that. It's doing so called simple, medial, lower paying work. And if you dare to look down at them, or treat them like furniture or a piece of machinery, if you don't treat them with dignity, you don't have a biblical view of work. And secondly, he's talking to this domestic here.

But secondly, what if you have a job that's kind of boring? Doesn't it feel like it's changing any life? It's just like I said, it's crunching numbers or it's doing this or it's doing that. Look, go get a job that is more in line with your gifts and interests. I'm not saying get a stay in the job, but please appreciate the work you are doing.

Please see there isn't any kind of work that isn't God's work. Secondly though, and here's something else, we can be brief on this. Paul says, the Bible's understanding of work, theology, that there's a creator, that there's a sustainer, that God is providing for us, and he's doing it. The theology is God as a creator, and it talks about the creation and about providence. God's creation and his providence, providence means the way he upholds us, the way he provides for us, how does he do it? Through other people's work.

And so theology not only transforms your understanding of the meaning of work, it infuses work with meaning, it infuses all work with meaning, but it also changes your motive. Works on your heart. Why? Look at this. Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear. Your earthly masters, but obey them not only to win their favor when their eyes on you, but a slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart, serve wholeheartedly.

That word wholeheartedly means joy and zeal serving the Lord. And here's what this is saying. Isn't that weird? You have an earthly boss. Not the important one. Look around her or him to your heavenly boss. Why? Some of you have bosses and work for companies that deserve a really good day's work. And a lot of you work for bosses and companies that don't deserve it. And therefore, some of you are doing your best and some of you are not doing your best. And that's because we don't have a biblical view of work. What Paul is saying is, look, look, all work is actually God's work. I just showed you that. If that's the case, if the core of all work is actually God's work. I just showed you that.

If that's the case, if the core of all work is doing God's work in the world, he's delegated his work to you, then your real master, your real boss is the one behind the earthly boss. Look at him, he always deserves a good day of work. He is your creator. He is your redeemer. And if you look to him, that means you'll always be working wholeheartedly, always being productive, always doing your best, always working with excellence. And here's two interesting results.

First of all, that's liberating. It's liberating. Your environment won't control you anymore. These other people can't screw you up and mess you up. You have your dignity. You know that you're going to do a good day's work. Why you're can't screw you up and mess you up. You have your dignity. You know that you're going to do a good day's work while you're working for the real boss. And therefore it's liberating so you're not controlled by your environment. But mostly what's really ironic is it's practical.

You know why it's so practical? If you actually work for your real boss in general over the long run, you will be, the earthly bosses will be competing to get you. You know that. If you're the kind of person that really is thinking always about what God, I want to please him, he deserves a good day of work. You're going to be such a good worker. You're going to be so steady, you're going to be so productive. You're going to be such a good worker. You're going to be so steady. You're going to be so productive.

You're going to have such integrity. You're not going to work hard only when people are watching. And that's going to get out. People are going to see that. And what's ironic is, if you actually care more about the heavenly boss and the earthly boss, eventually all the earthly bosses will be falling all over themselves trying to get you to work for them. This is not the view of work in the Greco-Roman world. People who did

manial tasks work considered, you know, just awful, scum, inconsequential. And this idea of work is utterly different and it'll change you too. It's estimated that most of us spend half of our waking hours at work. How does the wisdom of the Bible apply to our careers? In other words, how can our work connect with God's work and help us make our vocations more emotional? In his book, Every Good Endeavour, Tim Keller draws from decades of teaching on work and calling to show you how to find true joy in your work as you serve God and others.

The book offers surprising insights into how the Christian view of work can provide the foundation of a thriving professional and balanced personal life. Every good endeavor is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share Christ's love with more people around the world. Just visit Gospel and Life.com slash give. That's Gospel and Life.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Let's, we gotta go on to family.

Why? I'm trying to show you, what the main point is that the minute these people, these Christians, in their culture, as minute they became Christians and thought out the implications of theology for their, for every area of life. They became very different than the people around them.

Let me show you how the same thing happens with family. Under a family which is verses 1, 2, and 3, and 4, it tells you something for children to do and something for parents to do. By the way, it says children obey your parents in the Lord and then it says fathers do not exasperate your children. Let's start there. And what's interesting is obviously both father and mother are rearing the children because it says children obey

your parents. It's interesting that Paul actually says fathers do not exasperate your children. And it could be because Paul thinks well the father is the most responsible for what happens in the family, but it could also be because he thinks father is more likely to do this. And speaking as a father, I think that may be true. I don't know.

I'm just speculating. Just a guess, it's just a guess. But here, let me show you how different this is. In ancient times, fathers own their children, literally own their children. They were their property, and they could do anything they wanted to them, they could even kill them. And therefore, in the old household, hold codes of the pagans, they would say, fathers, take charge, show them whose boss, take over, be a disciplinarian, let them know.

And the first thing that Paul says, the Bible says to parents is don't exasperate, and this is the word that means infuriate. Don't infuriate your children. First thing, this is such a different approach. And by the way, what is saying is, don't make your children perpetually angry. You say, well, how do you do that? Well, there's actually two ways of doing it.

The first way and the way that we probably are thinking about is being actually abusive. One, but what does that mean? One commentator on the book of Ephesians, who knows something about the Greek word, looks at this word and says, what Paul is ruling out here when he says, don't infuriate your children, he's ruling out this quote, excessively severe discipline, unreasonably harsh demands, abusive authority, arbitrary nith, unfairness, constant nagging and condemnation, subjecting a child to humiliation, and all forms of gross insensitivity to a child's needs and sensibilities. All that will make your child perpetually angry, over discipline, see, excessively severe dismal,

but there's another way to make your child always angry, you know what it is? Under discipline. And some of you knew I was gonna say that, because if you're indulgent, if you're afraid, or if you're too undisciplined personally, to be consistent with your children, or if you're afraid of their disapproval, so they always give in, so you're really indul with your children, or if you're afraid of their disapproval. So they always give in.

So you're really indulging your child, you're kind of spoiling your child. That is a perfect way to raise a child who's always angry. Anyone with this incredible sense of entitlement that grows up was gonna be angry, you know why? Because when they get out into the world, they're gonna find that the world is nowhere near

as compliant to their wishes as you were. that the world is nowhere near as compliant to their wishes as you were. Overdiscipline or underdiscipline your child, and you make them perpetually angry, don't do that. See how much is in here? But then the second thing it says is, not just that. It doesn't just say don't exaggerate or infuriate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

This, again, is remarkable. And it comes as a complete departure from the culture of the time. And actually, it's a departure from our culture, you know why? Ancient culture said, the purpose of parenting was to discipline the kid. You own them, make them shape up, make them what you want, discipline. Modern, the modern family idea, modern culture says the purpose of family is just to nurture the child and not impose your views on them, let them grow up and be whoever they decide they want to be. You just nurture them, you just love them, that's it. Well listen, discipline is really important and love is really important. And love is really important.

But Paul is saying, what is the purpose of discipline? What is the purpose of love to teach them? What is right? So that they can be brought up. What does bring up means? It means, get to the place where they don't need you anymore. Really mature them. Really make them self-sufficient.

Make them co-adults with you. And that doesn't happen through just being firm or just loving them, but teaching them what's right. Stanley Howard was put it like this, pretty interesting. He says, a mother or father might be wrong. They might use their authority to teach their children something misinformed. And maybe the child will grow up and decide they were wrong. But if they grow up with a notion

that nothing matters in life, that is moral cowardice. The refusal to ask our children to believe, as we believe, to live as we live, and to act as we act is a betrayal that comes from moral cowardice. What the kids need more than anything else is somebody who says, there's right and wrong and this is how you ought to live. And if they grow up and they say,

you know, I like 80% of what mom and dad said, or even 50% or only 20% the point is they've learned how to grow up. But if you just love them so they just tie away, can live anyway I want, or if you just discipline them and crush them, you're not gonna bring them up. If you're too angry at your parents, because they were so flawed,

and they didn't love you like you wanted, or if you're too dependent on them still, you haven't really been brought up. On their forget a guy, I was, you know, as little my little church in Hopewell, and during the summer you would go around all the neighboring, or trailers, and there were little houses, and all the people who lived in them, and they didn't go to our church. We would go and say, hey, we're having a vacation Bible school.

We would be very happy to come over, get your child. It's at 9 o'clock till 12 noon, you know, every day for this week, and we'll be happy to come. And a lot of them said, sure, you know, every day for this week and we'll be happy to come and a lot of them said sure You know and sent the kids and we're happy about that But I'll never forget one guy I talked to who said no I'll tell you why because my father forced me to go to church and forced me to go to church and forced me to go to church I'm never gonna have my child go to church He was so mad at his father that he's being controlled by his father, he's being controlled by him.

He hasn't been brought up, he's not his own person yet. If you're really mad at your parents, or you're overly dependent on your parents, maybe you've got a lot of discipline or maybe you've got a love, but you weren't taught. And that's your job with your parent, with your children. Let me just turn it around one more thing. It doesn't just tell us something about parents. It also tells us something.

It doesn't just say parents do this for your children. It also says children do this for your parents. And there's actually two categories of children being mentioned here. One is children obey your parents and the Lord. The other is honor your father and mother. Now honor your father and mother is in the 10 commandments, right? One of the 10 commandments is honor your father and mother. The 10 commandments does not say obey your father and mother.

You know why? You must always honor your father and mother no matter who you are and no matter what they're like But you certainly don't always have to obey your parents, you know why? Even good parents Eventually you need to stop obeying because you need to grow up and Bad parents who might be asking you to do wrong things need to be disobeyed because they're bad But the one thing you must always do is honor them.

Now because most of the people in this room are adult children rather than minors, let me just say, do you understand this principle, the honor principle? If your father, mother, really disappointed you, or if your father and mother are so important to you, and that you're still dependent on their approval, so you're pretty much obeying them, you're not hitting the balance. You're supposed to honor them, not always obey them. You're supposed to honor them, not hate them. You're supposed to honor them, got it? Right down the middle of this aisle. You say, why?

Well, first of all, you need to do it for your own children's sake. If they don't see you, at least showing respect to your parents, they're going to have trouble in dealing with you when they grow up. Number two, your own conscience is going to bother you. If you stay angry with them, but at the same time, if you're too dependent on them, then you're also, you know, the Bible says you're supposed to leave your father and mother and cleave to your wife. So you say, well, how do I do that? The word honor means to treat them with respect. It's what the word means. And you do that, I give

us a lot of ways of doing it. It means, listen, you're all from different cultures, really. Find the culturally appropriate ways that make your parents feel respected and give it to them, even if you, you know, would rather not. You don't still have to obey them. You don't have to do everything they tell you, especially if they've got a lot of bad opinions and wrong ideas, but you have to show them respect. You need to tell them what you did get from them.

That was good, and you need to forgive them. Because if you don't forgive them, you'll be saying, I'm never going to make my return. You're still being controlled. You think you're speaking to your parents, but if you're mad at them, they are still in control of you and you haven't been brought up. We've got to end it, and here's how I want to end it.

What do you now see people in those days when they read this, the attitude toward children, the attitude toward parents, this is absolutely different than anything they'd ever seen. People who read it in those days, when they saw the attitude of masters, the attitude of servants, it was completely different. And guess what? It's different now, is it not? The minute you become a Christian, it doesn't just give you peace and groovy vibes in your private life. Becoming a Christian means you bring this gospel and it affects every area of your life. But especially from the inside out, why? What is the key to not loving your parents too much or too little, not being over dependent

on them or being too angry at them? I'll tell you what the key is. What is the key to not actually overindulging your child because you're afraid of their disapproval, or maybe even overdriving your child and disciplining your child because you're trying to live your life out through them and their success is too important to you.

Do you understand what's going on here? Until you see Jesus Christ was the true Son who lost the love of his heavenly Father so that we, our sins, can be forgiven and we can be brought into His family. Jesus was the true Son who lost the love of His Father so we could have God as our heavenly Father. And when we know He's our Heavenly Father and we know how loved we've been at such cost, then and only then if God's love is sloshing around in our soul

in major proportions, will we have the security not to over-control our child, or not to under-control our child, not to want our parents approval too much, or not to be too bitter of the fact that they didn't give us the approval that we wanted, because we've got gods. And why do we know we've got gods? Because the ultimate son lost the love of the ultimate father, so we could have the love of the ultimate father, so we could love our children, and we could love our parents rightly. And by the way, if I had an extra five minutes, I'd do the same thing for work. Because Jesus is the one master, he was a Lord who became a servant.

Why? So we could become saved, we could have our sins forgiven. So now He becomes the one non-oppressive master there is. If you are working today, mainly for self-esteem, mainly for approval, mainly for power,

mainly for status, and not for God, mainly because you're going to feel good about yourself and not for God. You're slaves. Yes, you are. Your work will drive you into the ground. You'll always be unhappy.

You'll always be frustrated. You'll always be driven. But if you know who you are in Christ, then you work not because you're trying to be good, feel good about yourself or whatever. The work becomes something you just do as a delight to serve God and to serve the people around you, and you're no longer a slave, you're liberated. Only when you see the ultimate master who became a slave so that you who are slaves can be free. Only when you see the ultimate son who lost his heavenly Father's love so that we who should be orph, have become children of God,

now and only now, can we really, from the inside out, live our lives in our family, live our lives in our workplace as we should. Jesus changes everything, the gospel changes everything, let us pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us this sort of panoramic view

of big parts of our lives. It does show us that Jesus changes everything. Help us to think out the implications of your gospel as we do our work and love our families. And we ask that you would grant this because we ask for it through Jesus in his name. We pray. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller on Finding Hope and Joy in your work. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged you. To find more Gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, you can sign up for email updates at GospelUnlife.com. That's GospelUnlife.com.

This month's sermons are a selection of recordings from 1996 to 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.